


Eggman Empire At War

by PotentatePoleman



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Other, Science Fiction, Space Battles, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-03-26 08:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13854009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotentatePoleman/pseuds/PotentatePoleman
Summary: A long time ago, on a planet far far away....EGGMAN EMPIRE AT WARSuffering another defeat at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik hatches a new scheme after listening to the advice of his faithful robotic servant, Orbot. His next plan being to travel to an alternate universe away from the reach of Sonic the Hedgehog in order to build a vast Empire of his own along with a doomsday army before returning to decimate and finally conquer the planet of Mobius once and for all in a short and bloody war. But when he wounds up in the universe of Star Wars and in a galaxy far far away and encounters the oppressive GALACTIC EMPIRE, will Doctor Eggman find success in his endeavors and finally achieve his life-goals of ruling Mobius and defeating Sonic?





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog nor do I own Star Wars. Both are respective property of their owning companies of Sega and Disney.

Doctor Eggman sighed in irritation as he stepped out of an elevator and into the control room of his current base, which was built inside of a small mountain. His moustache drooped down and his expression was one of utter annoyance. Multiple blue spines stuck in his arms, which he carefully extracted one by one. His two lackeys, Orbot and Cubot were there mopping the floor as they had been told to. Both looked up to greet their returning master, who walked in with his trademark red uniform tattered and damaged.

"Welcome back Doctor Eggman. How has your new plan came along?" The red robot known as Orbot welcomed him.

"How do you think?" Eggman begins as he pulls a blue spine out of his arm, wincing slightly at the pain from doing so. "It ended the same way all my previous plans had before. In failure all because of that blue rat and his wretched friends."

"That is most undesirable to hear. Though, how exactly did you get foiled this time?" Came Orbot again.

"I missed the first shot... and then Sonic glanced over and happened to spot me and, well, you get the drift." Eggman said as he pulled the last blue spine out before walking over and sitting down at his desk.

"See now, I told you it would have been better to use a bipod to steady the fifty caliber." Orbot reminded him.

"Oh shut up already. I didn't know the weapon had that much recoil. I've hardly ever fired any guns my whole life, especially ballistic ones..." Eggman says as he starts typing away at his computer, perusing a folder containing concepts for potential new plots to carry out for the domination of the entire world and the destruction of Sonic the Hedgehog. However, there was nothing new, as all the plots he viewed on the screen were either already used and failed, or too simplistic to succeed.

"None of this is of any use to me! All of these plans look as if they were made by Cubot!" Eggman growled.

"Hey! That's hurtful! A lot of those plans were made by me!" Cubot said as his eye lenses rotated to form a saddened look.

"Then that explains why one is 'burying Sonic in cement', as if it was that simple..." Eggman rested his head on one arm as he deleted all of the plans.

"You know doctor, I've been thinking, and I believe there may be an easier way to establish your Empire in mere days across a globe without fail." Orbot begins.

"I've most likely already attempted it..." Eggman interrupts for a moment.

"Ah, but you missed that I said 'a globe', not 'the' globe." Orbot continued, Eggman looked at him funny, "Why not cease all attempts to conquer Mobius completely and instead restart fresh from somewhere new?" Orbot said, shrugging at the doctor.

"And where would I do that? And what would be the point if I don't control Mobius and haven't defeated that blue rat?" Eggman questioned as he crossed his arms. Orbot waved his finger in the 'tsk tsk' manner.

"Because doctor, conquering another world may just be the key to ultimate success and establishing an Eggman Empire to rule forever. Think about it, we go somewhere else, conquer a new world, spend a long time building armadas and amassing legions and then return to deal with Sonic and his friends once and for all. And after we've dealt with them, we squash any resistance Mobius might put up and keep it in our clutches forever."

Eggman scratched his chin and hummed in a contemplating manner, pondering what Orbot said thoroughly. Slowly, but surely, a smile made it's way across the scientist's face as he got a brilliant new idea. The doctor then quickly rose, almost jumping up from his chair, and stepped inside a pod in the room, which closed behind him before opening again as the doctor stepped out in a brand spanking new uniform. This uniform looked identical to the uniform the doctor usually wore, however, with the addition of bright yellow epaulettes and a sash around his torso.

"Orbot, you're a genius! Sort of." Eggman says as he steps forward. "That's a perfect idea! But there is a flaw in it." Eggman indicated as he walked over to a counter that displayed a virtual 4D projection of the planet Mobius.

"If I vanish for a long time, Sonic and his friends will undoubtedly become suspicious of my hiatus from attempting world domination and will most likely come looking for me. And if they somehow discover my motive of conquering another world and building up to return and squash them, they'll step in and ruin it all as they have with so many other plans before!" Eggman exclaimed.

"But...they can't...not If I conquer another world out of their reach......completely! He he he he..." Eggman laughed softly as he walked over to a table with many sheets of blueprints sitting on them. He begins looking through the blueprint stack for a specific one.

"Out of their reach?" Cubot scratched his metallic head. "I don't think I get your meaning doctor." Orbot shrugged.

"Simple! We'll travel to a whole other universe and find a suitable world...no, worlds to conquer!" Eggman pulled out one of the blueprints from the pile.

Orbot and Cubot glance at each other for a moment before looking back at Eggman. "But how are we gonna travel to an alternate universe?" Cubot asked while staring at him quizzically.

"Simple." Eggman said before holding up the blueprints and displaying them before his lackeys, "By using this dimensional transportation device I designed some time ago should the need for it ever arise. It works by firing a bolt into outer space which stops and then expands into a large dimensional 'wall', if you will, which can be traversed as easy as taking candy from a mobian cub!" Eggman explains.

"That sounds excellent doctor...but, shouldn't we be prepared for when we traverse it? And how will we build it without Sonic snooping in our business?" Orbot questions.

"Well, yes, that's why I'll set up hidden factories away from the prying eyes of Sonic and his friends to construct an army and an new Egg Fleet among a few things. And I'm not worried about Sonic snooping around as usual. I'll construct the device here at this hidden base. We'll be in space when we activate it, and when we do, we leave quickly and then activate charges to detonate the device so Sonic won't have any trace of where we've went to. We'll be untraceable and he won't be able to stop us!" Eggman says before laughing with glee as he makes his way over to his control panel and begins pressing buttons.

"Orbot, Cubot, gather our other commanders and bring them here." Eggman said as he activates his construction Egg Pawns from the control panel.

"Yes sir! You can count on us!" Cubot affirms before going to float off until Orbot grabs his arm and pulls him back.

"Wait, I have another question doctor. How exactly will we power this device?" Orbot makes a point.

"I'll have to work that out as well. This device is designed to open a dimensional doorway half as wide as the moon, so it will require a massive power source... I would prefer... the Master Emerald. I'll send Metal Sonic and some other robots to attain it later, just do what I said." Eggman informs them. Orbot nods and then leaves with Cubot to go find Eggman's other lackeys.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Half an hour later, in the meeting room of Eggman's mountain fortress.  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"And that, my loyal commandants, is my new plan, and I'm adamant that it can't fail. And with that, I'll now be passing out assignments for you all." Eggman says as he sat at a round table in a meeting room along with his commanders.

Around the table from left to right sat..... floated Orbot and Cubot, the incompetent Scratch and Grounder and the more intelligent Coconuts, his second-in-command and nephew, Snively Robotnik. Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts were all excited about the plan, believing it to be truly the most impressive thing the good doctor had ever thought up. Snively on the other hand was somewhat skeptical, not sure about traveling to another universe, and afraid of the possibility of encountering something powerful which could serve as their undoing. Snively got flashbacks of memory to when a certain Chaos Force Demigod had destroyed the Egg Fleet that one time.

"Sir, if I may insert my inquiry for a moment, I am fully aware Orbot brought this up before me, but about how prepared we will be... What assets are we going to have?" Snively speaks up.

"Well, we must be absolutely prepared for confrontation in the case anything dangerous enough to threaten our plans is encountered. Which is precisely why I'm going to construct a new Death Egg in space. And for this special occasion, I'll be expanding the new Egg Fleet we will build far larger than it's ever been before. I've planned out resource hunts to gather enough to power our replicators to construct hundreds of ships. And on the side, I've had the Final Fortress, which is currently submerged and hidden deep in the ocean, rebuilt some time ago. All I need to do is lay out preparations to build an extra formidable and numerous mechanical military, some personal battle mechs and then lay the foundation for a mobile, new version of my dream city, Eggmanland, to be created!" Eggman gave his explanation.

"That's an awful lot of work boss, you sure we, and most importantly, you, can accomplish it all without that stupid hedgehog and his stupid friends finding out?" Scratch says.

"Have you forgotten that I am Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik?! Of course I can! What a ridiculous question. How many times have I built armies large enough to threaten this world without any tangible held territory before? Hmm? Exactly. It will only take us a few months at most."

"Ehy, boss. If I work extra hard on my assignment, can I get a promotion?" Coconuts asked, beaming at the doctor with his hands together in hopefulness at getting the answer he desired...

"No, because your assignment is making sure the floors are clean, janitor." Eggman harshly blurted, making Coconuts squint his eyes as he frowned a frown of malcontent and animosity.

"What do you want us to do doctor?" Cubot asked, gesturing to Cubot and himself.

"You two are going to be beamed up to the temporary forward outpost on the moon to oversee construction of the new Death Egg and mobile Eggmanland foundation, as well as coordinating the expanding of the Egg Fleet. Given that you two have experience in handling these kinds of tasks from your days of working at my Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park™, I trust that this will be no problem for you. Riiight?"

Orbot simply nodded, choosing not to question his orders despite knowing that the work he did at the amusement park doesn't compare to the amount of work he is being given here. Cubot nodded in acknowledgement and eagerness to work on this task, though, it was only because he was naive and thought that this task would be easy for him and Orbot to do.

"Scratch, Grounder, you will both be in charge of monitoring the location of Sonic at all times. I've had an insect sized spybot sent out to plant a tracking device on him disguised as a hair which is painlessly embedded in his skin. You'll both get to watch his location using the small array of spy satellites I have in orbit." Eggman turned to the two lackeys.

"Can we bring our slushy machine and 3DSs with us too, boss?" Grounder asked with a smile on his face, hoping the doctor would allow it.

"What? Where did you get a slushy machine at and why do you need a slushy machine?! You're a robot! You don't become parched or famished! And no, you can't have any video games, those will only distract you from your work!" Eggman says, annoyed by the request.

"Well, you see, we got it from the ruins of some convenience store that was accidentally destroyed this one time we were hunting Soni-"

"I don't care, no video games, no slushy machine, period." Eggman cut Scratch off.

"Aww man..." Grounder looked down to the floor, bummed out by the doctor's denial of his request.

"And finally, you Snively will be in charge of the construction of a new army of robots. I know full well you can handle this task, but don't underestimate it because it's only one task. I'll be needing a much larger army of robots than I've ever had, enough to subjugate multiple planets, and I need them in variety. Don't just mass produce SWATbots or Egg Pawns, we need troops that can fight in every combat situation. Fighting war isn't just limited to infantry skirmishes. We need air support, artillery and vehicles as well. You will use the large factory I have here in this mountain base to accomplish this task, I had plenty of resource gathering missions ordered before this meeting, so the replicators won't run dry anytime soon." Eggman pointed his finger to Snively, wanting to ensure his nephew understood.

"As you wish sir. I've taken note. You can expect mass production of robots after those resources are delivered here for our replicators." Snively saluted him.

"Good. In the meantime, I'll be occupied working on my dimensional transportation device and personal machines. Now then, we have work to do. This meeting is over." Eggman says as everyone stands and exits the room.

Eggman then marched out of the room and entered the elevator in the hallway outside to ascend upwards to the control room, where he walked over to the control panel and pressed a button. A door to the left opened after a few minutes and Metal Sonic strolled inside and stopped in front of Eggman, looking up at him with it's glowing red eyes.

"Alright, I have a new mission for you, Metal." Eggman says as he motions to a monitor on the panel showing satellite images of Angel Island. One of the pictures showed Knuckles the Echidna taking a nap near the Master Emerald's altar.

"I want you to retrieve the Master Emerald and return it. And try not to engage with the echidna. Go as quiet as possible. And attempt to take him down if he wakes up. Understood?"

Metal Sonic nodded as it made a buzzing electronic sound before marching out of the room and exiting the mountain base via a hangar hidden only by a sliding rock entrance on the mountainside. Eggman smiled gleefully as he sat at his desk. He viewed an image of Sonic on a monitor taken by a satellite.

"Just you wait you rodent. There's a reckoning coming and this time I will win! Bwo ho ho ho ho ha!" Eggman laughed as he got to work pushing the buttons on the control panel.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"...Hm....Hrmm...."

Silently, the Echidna known as Knuckles woke up to the sound of grass being rustled. Slowly, he sat up and took a few looks around, trying to find the source of the noise. He gazed over at the Master Emerald that lied on it's altar and then glanced at his surroundings until his eyes looked down and fell upon a slip of paper in front of him. 'Free Cookies' was all the paper had on it other than some lines making a sign pointing to his the north.

"Free cookies? All right!" Knuckles said as he hopped up and began strolling towards the north of Angel Island. He soon looked down and found a pathway of pebbles laid out before him, as if to help direct the gullible red Echidna towards the trick, which he followed without a second thought.

Metal Sonic's head then emerged, peeking out from behind the Master Emerald, looking towards the Echidna who walked along the path of pebbles. It's metallic foot nudged a pebble as it moved however, which fell down onto the stone floor below. Quickly, the red Echidna's head snapped back towards the Master Emerald. For a moment, he stared at the object he was sworn to guard and then slowly he shrugged and continued along his path.

When the Echidna was gone, Metal stepped out and made the signal for three Eggrobos to come out of hiding from some nearby foliage. The badniks quickly made their way over to the altar with their jetpacks, carrying chains and a clamp which they fixed around the Master Emerald before locking their chains onto it. One of the badniks returned back to the bush and came out of it piloting a smaller version of the iconic Eggmobile the good doctor himself used on a daily basis. Metal ordered the badniks to lock the chains on the back of the Eggmobile as it levitated upwards.

A buzzing sound was emitted by Metal as it pointed it's finger and motioned it's hands. The Eggrobos all gave it a salute before hopping into the miniature Eggmobile and lifting the Master Emerald from it's pedestal off into the air as they flew away in the Eggmobile. Another successful mission. Metal then quickly dashed over to the bush the badniks had hidden in and dragged out a full sized glass-like replica of the Master Emerald. A decoy, which it carried over and placed on the altar before it revved up it's engine and blasted off into the sky.

Knuckles soon returned, irate about the trick which led him to believe free cookies were nearby. He strutted back to the stone altar and sat back down against the steps. He took a look at the grapes he picked on his way back and ate one before looking back at the Master Emerald, which unknowingly to him was a replacement.

'Strange.... I could have sworn it was in a different position when I left....?' He thought as he shrugged and continued to eat the grapes.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Good! Good! With the Master Emerald in our possession, getting the transporter to work should be a breeze." Eggman said as he looked out a window into a cylinder shaped chamber where yellow Egg Pawns with hard hats worked without halt to construct a large device that looked to be shaped as one tall pylon.

Around the pylon, cranes and platforms stood as the Egg Pawns assembled it by placing it's parts and pieces together. A number of automated arms fixed and aligned the droves of wires inside the device. A large slot was visible on the side of the Pylon near the bottom, meant for the Master Emerald to be inserted into.

The doctor then turned and walked to the mech bay. He entered the large bay and reviewed the progress of the personal mechs he was assembling. So far, he had the most important of them completed, the Egg Dragoon. More were planned, but those could be completed on the side. For now all that the doctor focused on was the pylon.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Three months pass.  
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"Come on, that was the easiest question!" Sonic voiced his disapproval as he watched a quiz show on a television. He sat laid back on a couch with his hands behind his head, slightly bored. It was night and the Hedgehog had a desire to destroy robots made by his arch-nemesis, but the good doctor was on a mysterious hiatus. Two months was usually how long it took before Eggman decided to try another plan that would end up failing, but this time, he had been gone for three.

The blue hedgehog then reached towards the coffee table to grab some popcorn from a bowl when suddenly he heard the voice of Tails shouting for him, which made him overturn the bowl onto the floor and stumble off of the comfy couch he did not want to leave.

"SONIC! YOU'VE GOTTA COME SEE THIS!" Tails yelled. Sonic rushed up the stairs, baffled at the commotion.

"Tails?! What is it?!" He said as he stepped onto the top floor of the workshop. He saw Tails standing there, looking out of a telescope and into the star filled sky, particularly, towards the moon which illuminated the sky.

"Sonic! You won't believe what I see! Come take a look!" Miles says before stepping aside. Sonic came over and took a look into the scope and into the night sky. His eyes widened at the sight the fox had called him to come see. He saw the Death Egg, emerging from behind the Moon, the massive battlestation was accompanied by an entire armada of ships making up Eggman's mighty fleet. The sheer number of ships were shy of being as numerous as the stars that were also seen in the scope. Hundreds, possibly some thousands.

"So, ole' Egghead hasn't shown up lately because he's been preparing for something big behind our backs." Sonic says as he gets a serious look on his face, surprised at the amount of ships Eggman had built this time.

"While I admit it was clever of him to hide what he was building behind the moon, the sheer size of that fleet is scary. Sonic, we're going to need help if any chance is to be stood against that many ships." Tails says, worried over the armada's size.

"You're right about that. What do you say we go give Knuckles a little visit and ask for his help for this one?" Sonic says as he looks to Tails who had pulled out a communicator device. "I already got that covered. Good thing I gave everybody a communicator like this one." Tails said as he tried to reach Knuckles on it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"All preparations are complete doctor. The Egg Fleet now stands at over ten thousand ships strong, our legions of robots are on board the station and fleet and the transportation device is ready to be fired at any moment." Snively Robotnik informed Doctor Eggman as they both stood in the control room of the Death Egg.

"Good! Everything has come together exactly as I planned!" Eggman said as he clenched his hands together in accomplishment.

"Sir, the mobile Eggmanland foundation and upper city finished construction half an hour ago and is now ready for mobile transportation through space." Orbot says as he enters the control room with Cubot.

"Excellent! Now it's time for the moment of truth. Snively, are those nuclear charges set and ready to commence a timed detonation?" Eggman questions as he holds up a remote that activates the dimensional transporter.

"Affirmative sir. They've been set to detonate in six minutes after activation of the device." Snively says, smirking at how well the doctor's plan had come together.

"Good... Well, no need in anymore delaying. FIRE!" Eggman says as he pressed the remotes button.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Meanwhile on the ground, the roof on the top of the mountain base clanked as it slid open, it's mechanical support beams moving to let in the moonlight on the interior hidden underneath. Slowly, the transportation device that took on a pylon-like shape and form rose out of the top of the base and stood higher than the tip of the mountain and up into the sky. The Master Emerald, which was inserted into it's power slot, shined brightly with green light, illuminating a small area on the mountainside.

Magenta bolts of electricity danced around the Pylon as the lights on it blinked on and off. A quiet hum sounded off and increased in volume as the magenta electricity became more vibrant.

Finally, it ended with a crimson flare of light appearing on the top of the pylon for a split second as a boom as loud as thunder came off on it when a large spherical blast of magenta energy was fired out of the pylon, which raced up into the sky and beyond, traveling into space at the speed of light until it stopped directly in the middle of space, stuck in a stationary state.

Then, at last, the sphere of energy began to expand rapidly, growing larger as it took on a flat, disc shape.

"Oh ho ho ho ho! This is marvelous!" Eggman said as he watched the expansion of the dimensional doorway he had just spawned.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Woah! What is that thing there in the sky?!" Sonic says as he stares up at the small object in the sky growing in size.

"I don't know...but I get the feeling Eggman is behind it as well." Tails says as he looks through the scope to get a closer look.

"H-hey! The Death Egg and Egg Fleet are moving towards it! And there's something else coming off the Moon!" Tails says suddenly.

Sonic looked wary, staring at the magenta disc in the sky. "Just what are you up to this time, Egghead?" He says to himself.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Everyone, prepare for transportation." Snively says over the intercom to alert the Death Egg's personnel and the Egg Fleet's collective crew.

Slowly, the almost moon sized battlestation moved towards the doorway, being guided by the ten thousand or so ships of the Egg Fleet. Following behind it closely was the new Eggmanland, the mobile city was guided by the Final Fortress and several Egg Carriers as they neared the doorway. Finally, with two minutes passing, the Death Egg and majority of the fleet had passed through the doorway, the rest of the armada and Eggmanland had followed three minutes after, all leaving into the doorway and vanishing.

Sonic and Tails had watched the entire event through their telescope. They were confused as to why everything that Eggman had built just left through what they recognized as a massive portal. The portal had remained there by itself after everything had left through it. When the time was up, the dimensional doorway began to fade, becoming transparent as it started to disappear. Finally, it was gone. Yet, however, though the time was up, the charges that had been set to detonate and destroy the device that Eggman had constructed did not detonate. There was no nuclear explosion.

The Pylon stopped glowing and shut down. The Master Emerald continued to glow brightly, despite not being used as a power source anymore. But Eggman had vanished now, taking with him all of the assets he had created.

They flew through what looked to them to be a wormhole, a swirling wormhole with many colors ranging from pink, to red, to green, to purple, orange and blue. It wouldn't be too much longer now until they reached their destination. When they did, they would claim the first world they came upon and subjugate it to make way for the placing of Eggmanland.

Finally, the end of the wormhole was ahead and hastily approaching, passing over the Death Egg and Egg Fleet sooner than expected before the wormhole disappeared just as the dimensional doorway leading into it did. Now, they could see the stars again, but most importantly, they were now in orbit around a planet. The planet before them looked as if the entire surface was nothing but rocky landscape, although there was a few small oceans.

"Are...are we in an alternate universe?" Orbot questions.

"Well, if we are, the planet we've happened upon looks disappointing. I at least expected a continental world with more green." Snively comments.

"Yes, I'm sure we've made it to an alternate universe now. Although, it's strange we ended up at a world like this..." Eggman says as he looks out of the viewports of the control room at the rocky planet.

"W-what if we ended up in an alternate universe where Mobius was destroyed by nuclear war?!" Cubot says in distress at the thought.

"Don't be ridiculous Cubot, there's no way this could be a post-apocalyptic Mobius. I'm sure even an alternate universe version of our good doctor would at least care about what he rules........I hope." Orbot says.

Snively then folds his arms behind his back and turns to Doctor Eggman. "What direction should we take now sir? Should we send down a scouting party and investi-"

"Send down an entire army and battleships to secure territory for Eggmanland to land at." Eggman interrupts.

"An entire army and battleships?" Snively said quizzically

"Yes. I want to make sure any local inhabitants don't get in the way of our operations. Try to discover as much as possible on the planet's surface." Eggman says as he turns to exit the control room.

"As you wish sir, It will be done." Snively says as the doctor exits the room.


	2. The Planet and The Avenger

"Interesting..." Eggman said to himself, scratching his chin as he watched live video feed being broadcasted from the viewing optics on Metal Sonic, who he had sent down to the surface of the planet to scout and search for anything.

The robot designed to look and be better than Sonic the Hedgehog was flying towards the hulk of a crashed wedge shaped ship in the distance that looked as if it had impaled the ground. The back and the engines of the ship were sticking up high in the air and it looked to be abandoned, for a long time maybe. Metal Sonic boosted off to it and arrived near it in just a few seconds. There was already a horde of Egg Pawns, SWATbots and Buzzers and other machines that were teleported down from a battleship scavenging the ruins for anything useful to bring it back to the Death Egg.

"An interesting design. I can clearly tell this ship was designed for maximum firepower while keeping a minimal target profile..." Eggman rubs his chin while looking at the feed.

"Do you think it was meant for travel in air or space?" Orbot questioned as he elevated over to the doctor's side with Cubot who was carrying a platter with a cup of tea on it.

"I can't recognize anything that would make it an airship, so my best guess is that this is a starship of some type." Eggman says, " And judging by those large engines, it looks to be designed to fly at sublight speeds, and it may have a method of faster than light travel via a drive." Eggman grabs the cup and takes a sip.

"Sir, our troops on the ground have found something else that might interest you." Snively's voice came from the intercom installed on Eggman's chair, "We've discovered a large and intact abandoned factory complex that might be of use to us. I have many teams of SWATbots plundering it as we speak." Snively informed him.

"An entire factory that's intact? Wonderful, that would be the perfect place to set up Eggmanland near, and it would be useful to refurbish to produce more robots. Metal Sonic, go to this factory, I want to see what it has to offer." Eggman commanded. Metal Sonic obeyed and ceased observing the crashed spaceship to instead fly off towards the factory.

The trip was quick as the robotic doppelgänger of Sonic the Hedgehog reached the factory hastily. The surface of the factory was covered by sand and rock. It was easy to see that this was an underground factory. The top had many emplacements for turrets and defenses, as well as some towers for snipers fashioned out of the rock.

Quickly, Metal Sonic made it's way over to the secretive entrance, which had been hidden by a false wall of rock that the SWATbots had uncovered. It made it's way in to the entrance hall and went past it to the main factory rooms. The interior of the underground facility was dark until the SWATbots had found a way to restore the power. Now with the lights on, the interior was clear, and the many, many assembly lines that stretched through out the factory could be seen, both on the ground and higher above as they were connected to a system meant to move produced battle droids to the storage areas.

"I must say, for a factory that was most likely built by someone with a lower IQ than myself, the design is quite good. This will be of great use to us to expand our army." Eggman says, taking another sip from his cup.

"Should we move Eggmanland into position and place it now, sir?" Snively asks over the intercom.

"Yes, and do it fast. I'm eager to get to the ground now myself." Eggman says as he continues to watch from the screen.

"Aye aye, sir. I'll have Eggmanland established in no time." Snively says back before getting off the intercom.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

In space, the engines on the foundation of the mobile new version of Eggmanland fired up as the city descended to the surface. The descent was slow, but steady, as it took precisely one hour for the city to get to the surface and land near the factory that was discovered. The foundation of the city deployed it's stability rods, which shot into the ground around the city and burrowed deep into it before locking in place. The rods automatically adjusted to keep the city at a perfect level, completely flat with no slanting in it's position. A large metal wall rose from the mechanical foundation the entire city was built on top of and surrounded the city.

Following closely behind the city was the Final Fortress, the massive whale shark-esque ship Eggman had created to act as the flagship of his fleet, which had also descended down to the surface and remained there high in the sky above Eggmanland. The doctor had watched it all from the bridge of the Final Fortress with a smile on his face and waited until the generators of Eggmanland booted up to power the massive city before he traveled to the hangar to enter his Eggmobile.

The doctor flew down to the newly placed city, to the tallest tower in the newly placed Eggmanland, the command headquarters, and entered it through the landing pad. He entered his office quarters in the building and walked over to his desk. In the room, the teleportation pad powered up as Snively Robotnik, alongside Scratch, Grounder, Coconuts, Orbot and Cubot beamed into the room and all moved to stand in attention before the doctor.

"Well sir, we've done it and it was all because of your genius planning. Now sir, what would you have for us as our next orders?" Snively asks as he folds his arms behind his back.

"Well, every objective thus far is complete. I suppose our first new task should be renovating the factory to begin producing robots of our design and scavenge anything left that would be useful to our cause." Eggman says as he walks over in front of them, "Then we should search for other planets if we are to expand my Empire. Other planets to conquest and bring into our fold." Eggman states.

The double door to the room opened then as Metal Sonic marched inside alongside some Egg Pawns carrying an assortment of items that were collected from the crashed spaceship and factory.

"Ahh, Metal, what have you brought for me?" Eggman asks as Metal Sonic walks over to the middle of the room and taps it's foot on the floor, making a counter spring up from the floor in between the doctor and his commanders, who all looked on in curiosity. The Egg Pawns stepped forward and placed the items down on the table one by one before saluting and dismissing themselves from the room. Doctor Eggman and his companions examined the bobbles that were retrieved for them.

One appeared to be a map device that displayed the holographic map of an entire galaxy. The other was a computer that likely had some valuable information. Another was a data archive terminal salvaged from the crashed spaceship. One was a schematic of some type of device, and the writing was in an unknown language. And the last appeared to be a weapon of some type.

"An entire galaxy..." Orbot comments in awe.

"I call dibs on test firing the gun!" Scratch declares as he grabs the handle of the weapon.

"No way! I called dibs first!" Grounder says as he latches onto the barrel of the gun with his drills.

"Cut it out you morons! Treat all guns as loaded!" Coconuts interjects, grabbing hold of the gun and yanking it from the grasp of Scratch and Grounder. However, the monkey robot's index finger finds it's way to the trigger as he pulls the gun away and presses it down, firing a blue bolt of plasma from the weapon, which traveled forward and hit Metal Sonic on the forehead. The bolt, while extremely hot, inflicted only minimal damage to the robot's chasis and left behind a black spot which smoke rose from. Coconuts yelped in fear as Metal Sonic gave him a death glare.

"You idiot!" Eggman says in annoyance as he steps over and jerks Coconuts' hand over and grabs the gun from the janitor, "No one will calling dibs on anything! I will be the one to research these objects, not you lot!" Eggman says as he gives the three incompetent robots a scolding glare, making them shrink back in fear.

"And you!" Eggman says, pointing to Coconuts, "Because you had to stain my creation, you get to be the one to clean it off!" Eggman says as he points to the burn spot on Metal Sonic's forehead.

"M-Me?! B-b-but! H-he'd k-kill me if I touch him! Please! No! No! Don't make me do it!" Coconuts pleaded in terror.

"Not my problem." Eggman says as he nods to Metal Sonic, who then walks forward and snatches Coconuts by the arm before dragging the terrified robot monkey out of the room as he yelped and struggled to get away.

"And you two." Eggman says as he looks at Scratch and Grounder, who stopped snickering at Coconuts' misfortune as they tensed up, "You two get to run the oil cantina now." Eggman says.

"The oil cantina? But that's the most boring job ever!" Grounder complains. "Yeah! I don't want to have to sit behind a counter twenty four hours every day and serve oil sodas and oil milkshakes out to rust buckets!" Scratch whines.

"I don't care. Now get to the cantina and get to work or I'll dismantle you both and turn you into automated vacuum cleaners." Eggman threatens, making both of them jump up and rush out of the room.

"Sir, since that embarrassing predicament is over, would you like for me to get to work on renovations of the factory?" Snively asks.

"Yes Snively, get a complement of construction pawns down there to do some restyling." Eggman says, making the short man in green salute him before walking out.

"Orbot, Cubot. Beam back to the Death Egg and keep watch. Report back to me should anything happen." Eggman says as he walks over to the table.

"Sure thing doc', you can count on us!" Cubot says. "As you wish sir." Orbot says as he and Cubot floated back over to the teleportation pad and beam back to the Death Egg.

"Unit-568, 942 and 127, carry these items to my work bay." Eggman says as he walks out of the office to the elevators. On his command, three Eggrobos pop out of a hatch on the ceiling and elevate downward. The Eggrobos grab the objects on the table and elevate back to the hatch, going through a tunnel to the mech bay where the good doctor waited.

"Now then, let's see what we have here." Eggman says to himself as the Eggrobos place the items on his workbench. The Doctor manages to plug the data archive terminal and computer up to a mainframe with some wires and cables, he smiles as their screens flicker on.

The doctor jumps in fright then however as a loud slamming noise is heard when something large is dropped onto the floor of his work bay from above. He looks over to see some type of large cannon that more Eggrobos brought in.

"Sir, this weapon has been salvaged from the crashed starship." One of the Eggrobos informs him before they elevate away with their jetpacks.

"What a large weapon. Perhaps I'll reverse engineer you into something better later." Eggman says as he walks over and examines the weapon briefly before walking back to the data archive terminal and cracks his knuckles. "Alright, let's see what you will reveal to me..." Eggman says as he begins working on the terminal to uncover it's information.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
One day later....  
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"Do you think the doctor will come out with new orders today?" Cubot asked while spinning around in a seat on the control room of the Death Egg. He and Orbot were both there keeping watch over the Death Egg and the fleet as per the orders of the doctor.

"Highly unlikely. He's been in his workshop for two days now and the Eggrobos have been constantly bringing more and more scavenged things to him. I feel like he's going to be preoccupied for a bit longer." Orbot replied, reading a comic published by Dark Horse, one he stuck in secret as the doctor doesn't allow anything to occupy oneself with during the job.

Cubot then spun slower, his eye lenses fixed to make a bored expression. His lenses shot open as he saw something out of the viewport suddenly. Stopping the spinning, he leaned forward for a better look and stared before poking Orbot on his arm.

"...Hey...Orbot...has that white thing always been there in the distance....?" Cubot says, curious about a dagger shaped object of considerable size moving towards the Death Egg and Egg Fleet.

"White thing?" Orbot says as he looks up through the viewport and sees what Cubot had pointed out. Orbot too stared at it, not knowing what it was until his processors produced the most logical explanation. "Cubot, that's no 'white thing', that's a starship, and it's moving straight for us." Orbot says, setting the vintage comic down.

A light on the console before them began to blink. The ID displayed an unknown frequency. Orbot and Cubot glanced at each other briefly before Orbot slowly reached his red hand forward and pressed a button, answering the call.

There was static for a moment before a stern voice could be heard over the communicator.

"-n the name of the Galactic Empire, this is Captain Lorth Needa, commander of the Star Destroyer Avenger. I demand you immediately identify yourselves and explain the presence of your fleet and space station now as well as telling me who or what your allegiance is for." The voice came from over the communicator.

Orbot and Cubot both stared at the communicator and then at each other again before thinking about what to respond with.

"Uhm... This...this is fleet admiral Orbot." Orbot says. "Yeah, and this is grand admiral Cubot." Cubot added. "This is the..... the Death Egg orbital station of the Eggman Empire." Orbot finishes.

The communicator goes silent before the voice of Lorth Needa came back.

"The... what empire?"

"The...Eggman Empire." Cubot answers.

"I know of no such 'Empire'. Don't be preposterous, there is only one ruling Empire in the galaxy. I demand you immediately surrender your ships and station and allow us access . We will be confiscating it." Captain Needa orders.

"I'm afraid we can't do that. You don't have any authority or jurisdiction here. This fleet and station belong to the Eggman Empire. I now kindly request you leave." Orbot says.

"Do not make me repeat myself. Surrender your ships and station and allow us entry now or we shall open fire." Lorth Needa demanded.

"Cubot......Cubot.... alert the doctor immediately. This isn't something we're prepared to handle properly." Orbot whispers to Cubot.

"O-oh, okay." The yellow lackey says, nodding before elevating up and rushing off to the teleportation pad.

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"It's incredible, all of it." Eggman says at the extraordinary information he was able to pull off of the terminal and computer. Snively, who was present, simply listened, fascinated.

"All that I could pull from the 'holonet' is useful even if it is just public information. Although, this 'Galactic Empire' and 'Rebellion' will be a problem if I'm to expand my own Empire across this galaxy and conquer it all." Eggman states as he looks over the holographic galaxy map once more.

"Think of it Snively, my flag waving over every world in the known galaxy. My glorious Eggman Empire stretching far across the confines of the stars! And when we have it all under our control, we'll return to Mobius, and then Sonic and his blasted friends will get their reckoning at last! Our armies and armadas will be far too large for them to handle. They won't be able to fight it forever, and when they succumb to our might, I'll finish them off for good and then bring Mobius to this universe, to this galaxy, and rule over it forever, along with everything else we conquer!" Eggman said as he put one leg up on a chair and stood proud and high.

"Of course sir. When our work is done here in this galaxy, that pathetic blue rodent and his friends will fall before our superiorty and nothing can be done when we take Mobius from them." Snively says, smirking at the idea.

"But if we are to build our might up to be able to take on the Empire already ruling here in this galaxy, we'll have to upgrade our fleet. From what I learned from the data archive, the ship was serving in the navy of a predecessor government to this Galactic Empire called the Galactic Republic. I was able to find naval knowledge on the terminal as well as info about ships and naval armaments. This weapon salvaged from the crashed ship is a 'turbolaser', a powerful cannon mounted on most ships alongside some other armaments." Eggman says as he motions to the Clone Wars era quad turbolaser in the bay with them.

"A weapon with the name turbo in it must surely have a considerable yield, yes? It certainly seems impressive. However, the tibanna gas you mentioned that powers it could be a problem if you really are going to reverse engineer it to replace the armaments we have already on our Egg ships." Snively voices his opinion.

"It is of no concern, I'll find a solution to sort that out, since I intend to immediately get to work on reverse engineering it to make something even more powerful." Eggman says.

"I see. And what of our ground troops?" Snively asks.

"From what I can tell, the only ones in need of upgrades are the ones equipped with slug throwers. The blaster rifle that incompetent scrap bot monkey janitor of our shot Metal Sonic with is decently powerful enough to create small implosions with it's bolts. I suppose I'll upgrade the machine guns I put on the Egg Gunner line and the Egg Shooters with a reverse engineered blaster based off the one that was recovered." Eggman said just as Cubot suddenly entered the room in a hurry.

"Doctor! Doctor! We've got a serious problem up in space, you gotta come quick!" Cubot said in distress.

"What's so dire a problem that it's important enough for you to interrupt me?" Eggman grumbles.

"There's a big ship up there sir! It's shaped like a dagger and everything and the people on it want us to surrender to the 'Galactic Empire'!" Cubot says, causing Eggman to give him a look of surprise.

"Snively, come with me, we've got a problem to handle." Eggman says as he walks out of the bay and to the teleportation pad. Snively and Cubot followed closely behind.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"I have given you enough warnings already. Lay down any arms you might have and surrender your fleet and station or we will open fire!." Lorth Needa threatened Orbot, who was stalling.

Orbot turned his head as he heard the doors open to see the doctor walk in alongside Snively and Cubot. "Oh thank goodness you're here doctor. This captain is getting very aggressive." Orbot says as Eggman and Snively stroll up to the console.

Eggman looks at the looming starship from the viewport before turning his to the communicator, "Who is this and why do you dare threaten the Eggman Empire?!" Eggman yelled over the communicator.

"This is Captain Lorth Needa of the Imperial Navy. I demand the immediate surrender of your ships and station or we will open fire upon your fleet and seize the station by force." Needa replies.

"Well, this is Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik, ruler of the Eggman Empire and esteemed inventor of many mechanical wonders and I'm here to tell you that nobody commands me! Now I'll give you one chance for you to surrender or we will open fire and tear your ship apart!" Eggman retorts.

"Very well, if that is the route you choose, then you leave us with no other choice." Needa says seconds before a barrage of green bolts is seen flying towards the ships of the Egg Fleet and the Death Egg.

"If it's war you want, it's war you'll get!" Eggman says before turning to the intercom, "All ships, enter attack formation and destroy that ship!" Eggman shouts over the intercom.

Obeying the order, the armada flew towards the Star Destroyer, opening up on it with all weapons. The various Sawfish Battleships flew forward with their frontal cannons firing without stop, being guided by the Manta Ray and Mako gunships. Behind them flew in the Egg Carriers, which unleashed barrages of missiles and blasts from the various plasma and energy cannons mounted on it. Though their energy weapons had high fire rates, their yield was unimpressive compared to the turbolasers of the Star Destroyer.

Despite the barrage that was returned, it did little to the Star Destroyer as it's deflector shield was able to resist the projectiles pelting it with both the ray and particle shields it possessed. Soon, the difference in power was obvious, as quantity could not best quality in battle this time. The turbolasers fired from the Imperial-II class Star Destroyer hit the various ships that made up the Egg Fleet, which were not protected by shielding much like the Imperial ship was. The turbolaser bolts tore through the Egg Ships and heavily damaged several Egg Carriers. One by one, Sawfish, Manta Ray and Mako battleships fell. The husks of the Egg ships the Star Destroyer had defeated drifted through space and became cold. More and more ships joined the fray, only to be split into pieces by the turbolaser cannons.

Then the Egg Carriers themselves joined the Egg ships that had fallen in destruction when the octuple barbette turbolaser cannons of the Imperial-II class took aim and fired at the larger ships in the Egg Fleet. The eight turbolaser bolts fired as one projectile from their barrels pierced holes in the hull of the Carriers. Eleven of them were destroyed after prolonged fighting that dragged on for some time.

"Sir, this battle is beginning to look one sided in favor of the attacker. What are we going to do?" Snively says, concerned for how things were going. "That ship's shields are protecting it from everything we throw at it and it outclasses our ships in terms of weaponry!" Snively states.

"If only we had more time before something like this happened! I would have reverse engineered that recovered turbolaser by now! We have no choice, halt any other ships from flying to engage it and order the three Egg Carriers fighting it already to remain behind and drive into it." Eggman says, clenching his fist.

"Drive into it?" Snively questions.

"Yes! Order them to kamikaze crash into it! Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made, and there wouldn't be enough time to try and use the frontal mounted laser cannons on them before they get blasted into nothing." Eggman orders.

"As you wish sir." Snively affirms.

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"Captain, those large ships of theirs are heading straight for us!" One of the Imperial Ensigns alerted Needa as he looked out of the bridge's viewports. He would have been confident the Avenger could of withstood one of the large ships ramming into it's hull, but there were three and one was going straight for the bridge tower.

Acting quickly he shouted 'Abandon ship!' before running out as quickly as he could to reach the escape pods, but it was far too late as the three Egg Carriers plummeted into the Avenger far faster than expected. One flew directly into the bridge tower, and crashed into it, diving right through it and tearing the bridge tower segment into pieces that drifted off into the space that surrounded everything.

Another of the Egg Carriers dove into the top of the Avenger, piercing through it as it came out through where the hangar was, resulting in the Egg Carrier being finished off and the Imperial Star Destroyer being left heavily damaged beyond repair. The last one flew into the tip of the Avenger and crashed through the wreckage and into the hangar as well.

When all was done, and no more explosions erupted, the four ships were merged into one space hulk of remains. Everyone on the Star Destroyer had perished and Captain Lorth Needa was taken with them, having went down with his ship. While it was costly, as they lost thirty some ships in such quick time, Eggman's fleet had managed to pull a Hail Mary victory.

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"Snively, we can't afford to endure more attacks like this. It's time for us to move on to the next phase of our plans for conquering this galaxy." Eggman says. Snively looks up curiously. "Next phase of our plans sir?"

"Full militarization and mobilization. Work on upgrading the Egg Fleet begins immediately. I want the remains of the that Imperial ship salvaged for anything useful at once. We'll have to reverse engineer those turbolasers immediately if we are to even begin to stand a chance against the starships this Imperial Navy fields." Eggman states as he turns to walk to the teleportation pad. "I'm going to get to work on reverse engineering and upgrading our troops this instant. Snively, I can trust you'll begin scavenging that ship?"

"Right away sir. I'll send out swarms of robots to scavenge and retrieve useful things." Snively says with a salute.

"Good. And Orbot, if any more enemy ships show up, obliterate them with the Final Egg Blaster." Eggman says much to the shock of everybody else in the control room.

"D-doctor, the Final Egg Blaster?! If we shot a ship in close proximity with that, we would destroy an entire cluster of surrounding stars!" Orbot argued.

"Then tone down the power setting to an adequate level. It's destructive capacity can be adjusted. Setting it to power level twenty on the scale should suffice. For reference, that's enough to blow an entire country into a deep, fiery crater." Eggman finishes before leaving the room.

Orbot and Cubot simply look at each other as Snively leaves the room as well. "Oh boy..." Cubot says to Orbot.


	3. Les Guerres Napoléoniennes

"Our next concern should be going covert. We're dealing with an entire galaxy as our playing field, so it would be first and foremost to learn what we can about this Galactic Empire, and the first thing we should learn is where and which planets are the most important, strategically, and famously." Eggman said while looking over the holographic galaxy map.

"Why planets that would be famous as well instead of just strategically important planets only sir?" Snively asks as Egg-SWATs carried items such as terminals, code cylinders and a few other miscellaneous objects into the bay and set them down on the workbenches.

"Do you know the saying 'He who rules the seas rules the world'?" Eggman began, Snively nodded.

"Imagine the entire galaxy as the world, with the strategically important planets as the seas and the famous ones as the islands. If one rules the entire world and seas, should he not also rule the islands?" Eggman asks. Snively answers 'Yes?' after a second.

"Then if the galaxy is a world with it's planets being islands and the seas, I will rule all of it!" Eggman states as one of the Egg-SWATs steps forward and offers him a small device. "What is this?"

"Sir, it appears to be an updated galaxy map sir." The robot says in it's monotonous voice.

Eggman took the holographic map and activated it, looking over the updated version and comparing it to the older one before taking the older one and chucking it behind himself to replace it with the updated version.

"Now, Snively, we must figure out which planets are strategically important first, so we know where to gather information and which ones to conquer." Eggman said, looking over at an Egg-SWAT carrying a terminal, "You, is that one from the ship that attacked us a while ago? Bring it over here and hook it up. Snively, get on that terminal and look up information about planets." Eggman orders.

"Yes sir," Snively says as he waited for the Egg-SWAT to plug the terminal up. The Egg-SWAT reached to some cables and connected it to the terminal before lowering it down to Snively's height. The nephew looked on the screen and turned his head back towards the doctor.

"What does the data archive say about 'Imperial Center'?" Eggman questions, rubbing his chin with one hand behind his back.

"Let's see.... let's see.... Ah! Here we are. Imperial Center, otherwise known as Coruscant, is the capital of the Galactic Empire. The entire planet is one large city, which is known as Imperial City, an Ecumenopolis. It has a population of over one trillion and is the most important planet in the galaxy and one of the wealthiest." Snively reads off.

"A planet with it's entire surface covered in cityscape? Interesting... Tell me more." Eggman says, smiling while looking at Coruscant on the holographic map.

"Well, points of interest include the Galactic Museum, the Great Western Sea, the Imperial Palace, the Jedi Temple, the Manarai Mountains, the Senate Building, the University of Coruscant and the Works." Snively said, pressing buttons on the terminal before turning it to display images of said locations. The doctor looked at the Imperial Palace intently, intrigued by it's sheer size and the number of towers on it. Even the doctor had a hidden appreciation for architecture, he was a man of taste and culture aside from being a man of intelligence and domination.

"Alright.... tell me about this one." Eggman says, pointing to the planet Kuat on the map.

"Hmm.... Ah. Kuat, one of the wealthiest planets in the galaxy, this planet is encircled by Kuat Drive Yard's Orbital Array. A group of connected space stations that encircle the planet. These drive yards contain shipyards, drydocks, warehouses, factories, and machine shops."

"Shipyards, factories and machine shops all in one? Oh ho ho ho, I know which planet I'm going to put on the list." Eggman says as he looks over the map again, "So I take it the worlds around the galactic center are the most important generally?"

"Not exactly, as I can tell, the only important planet there is one named Byss. No, the most important planets, and wealthiest are around the deep core in a region called the 'Core Worlds'." Snively corrected him.

"I see..." Eggman says, "So, as I can see, we are located at a planet called Hypori. Tell me about some of the nearby planets."

"Well let's see... Hmmmmm-Ah! Here's one I think you'll like sir. Kamino, a water world" Snively starts.

"And what use would a world covered in water be to us?" Eggman says, eying Snively.

"The world is famous for highly advanced cloning technology sir." Snively says.

"....Hmm, while that does sound interesting, we don't have a use for cloning technology." Eggman states, looking over the map once more, "Tell me about this close one called Geonosis."

"Well, it's a desert world with a rocky terrain, much like this one. It has a number of droid foundries much like the one on this planet sir. Some operational, some are decommissioned." Snively explains.

"Then that settles it. We'll capture this Geonosis and refurbish the foundries there to produce our robots for full invasion of the galaxy." Eggman says as he turns off the map. He then presses a button on a control panel. The large hangar door of the mech bay opened and one of the surviving octuple barbette turbolaser turrets salvaged from the Avenger was carried in by a crane.

"Our ships need better armaments if they're going to stand a chance against the ships in this galaxy, which is why It's time to get to work on that now. When I'm through here with my work, we'll be able to blast anything that we encounter to smithereens with superior firepower. Nothing will stand in our way! Ha ha ha ha!" Eggman laughed as he prepared to begin his work.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"I'm surprised Eggman just up and left an entire base like this. You would have thought he'd of destroyed it before going to leave no traces." Tails said as he explored around the hangar of the mountain base Eggman had previously used alongside Sonic the Hedgehog and the echidna Knuckles, who had tagged along to get back his missing Master Emerald.

"Yeah, it's almost like he wants us to find out how to get to him so we can crumble his scheme again." Sonic says in a snarky way as he looked around.

"I wouldn't be so gung-ho about getting to Eggman, with the number of things you said he has, he could probably be trying to lead us into a trap." Knuckles said as he followed closely behind.

"Hey, guys, do you hear that?" Tails says suddenly. There was an audible sound akin to gunshots that could be heard, but only barely.

"Sounds like some fighting is going on somewhere." Sonic says as he listens.

"I think.... I think I can hear it coming from behind this door." Knuckles says as he walks up to a sliding door in the far back of the hangar and presses his head against it to hear better, "Yeah, it sounds like it's in the next room over-" Knuckles stopped and fell through as the sliding door opened automatically. The sound of the gunshots was now heard louder, much louder as Sonic and Tails jumped back in surprise.

Behind the door was a battle in progress. The sounds of crunching metal and destruction was heard alongside the gunshots, and a loud robotic voice suddenly called out.

"DESTROY ALL OF EGGMAN'S ROBOTS!"

Sonic and Tails quickly rushed inside with Knuckles picking himself up and following. The three of them saw in the large hallway a buildup of piles of destroyed and dismantled Egg Pawns and Egg Fighters, and the one responsible for their destruction, E-123 Omega, who was gunning them down in droves with his miniguns as they poured into the hallway. Their nuts, bolts, screws, limbs, and other such delicate parts went flying everywhere in the hallway. Soon the onslaught of Eggman's robots ended and Omega's miniguns retreated back into his arms as he proceeded to push the pile of dead robots aside.

"Omega? What are you doing here?" Tails asked as the three approached the hulking E series robot who turned to them.

"I AM HERE TO FIND AND DESTROY DOCTOR EGGMAN." Omega answers.

"Well, you aren't going to have much luck with that." Sonic says.

"WHY IS THAT?" Omega questioned.

"Did you see that bright thing that launched into space yesterday?" Sonic asks.

"AFFIRMATIVE. I MADE MY WAY TO THIS HIDDEN MOUNTAIN BASE DIRECTLY AFTER I WITNESSED THE DEATH EGG ENTER A WORMHOLE GENERATED BY SAID BRIGHT THING." Omega affirms.

"Well, we think Eggman was aboard the Death Egg when it left through it. We don't know where he could have gone with it, but he had thousands of Egg Fleet ships going through it too." Tails says.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?"

"Well, we want to find out why all that happened and where Eggman could have gone if he did go somewhere." Sonic says.

"And I'm here to get the Master Emerald back. Two months have went by before I finally noticed it's been replaced with a glass replica. TWO MONTHS. And I know Eggman nabbed it for sure because I found anti gravity thrusters with his symbol on them holding up Angel Island." Knuckles adds.

"I SEE. THEN IN THAT CASE, WE SHOULD WORK TOGETHER TO FIND DOCTOR EGGMAN AND DESTROY HIM. BUT FIRST, LET US RENDEZVOUS WITH SHADOW." Omega says as he finishes moving the pile of destroyed Eggman robots aside to clear the hallway.

"Shadow is with you?" Sonic asks.

"AFFIRMATIVE. SHADOW IS NOT CURRENTLY OPERATING ON ANY G.U.N ASSIGNMENTS AS OF NOW AND HAS AGREED TO ASSIST ME IN LOCATING THE DOCTOR." Omega says as they travel through the base, going through a number of rooms and halls where destroyed Eggman robots littered the floors.

"Am I the only one wondering why there are so many robots here? I thought Eggman left and took his inventions with him?" Knuckles says in curiosity.

"THE ROBOTS IN THIS BASE MAKE UP THE SECURITY COMPLEMENT THAT WAS ACTIVATED AFTER MINE AND SHADOW'S DYNAMIC ENTRY." Omega stated as they walked.

"Dynamic entry?" Knuckles questioned.

"I MADE USE OF MY ROCKETS TO ENTER IN THROUGH THE WALL SINCE THERE WAS NO DOOR." Omega says as they find an elevator, and coincidentally, Shadow the Hedgehog shooting a few last remaining Egg Pawns with his handgun. Shadow drops an emptied clip from his weapon as he turns to the approaching group.

"Hmphf. Why are you and your friends here, faker?" Shadow says in his soft-spoken tone.

"Great to see you too, Shadow." Sonic says sarcastically, "We came to uncover what Eggman is up to this time is all." Sonic finishes.

"Is your life that boring without Eggman to fight every now and then?" Shadow scoffs.

"It's probably not any less boring than yours when G.U.N isn't sending you onto missions to foil Eggman every now and then." Sonic retorts, to which Shadow grumbled.

"THE CONTROL ROOM IS THIS WAY. THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE." Omega says as he presses the elevator button and steps inside once it came down.

"I don't think we can fit with you in there, Omega." Tails says, noticing how Omega took up most of the elevators space.

"NONSENSE YELLOW FOREST CREATURE. YOU ARE ALL SMALLER THAN ME AND THUS ABLE TO FIT. NOW, GET ON." Omega stated in an almost commanding tone. Tails shrugged and stepped on, being followed by Knuckles, Sonic and Shadow who all had to squeeze into the tight space.

All of them waited as the elevator ascended, annoyed by the tight space. Their annoyance at Omega insisting they could fit only increased when the robot began to hum along to the tune of the cheesy elevator music. It was like torture to their ears. Finally, the elevator reached it's destination and they spilled out for some breathing air and space as they were in the control room.

"Tails. You hack into Eggman's mainframe and see what you can find. Let's search around and see what we can find." Shadow says as he begins to look around. Tails went over and hopped onto Eggman's desk and began attempting to hack into the mainframe computer. Sonic and Knuckles searched thoroughly, trying to find things that might hold information. Shadow and Omega rummaged and dumped things over as they searched, trashing the control room. Sonic and Knuckles stared at each other before deciding to do the same.

"Well, I managed to hack the computer, but there's nothing special on it. Only old designs for machines, robots, a list of hypothetical plans, and a folder listed as 'SatAM episodes'." Tails said before he hopped down from the chair. His tails catch the handle of a drawer on the desk which pulls it out. Tails looks at what he did and becomes surprised when he finds a rolled up blueprint in the fallen drawer.

"I found something!" Tails says out loud to the others as he picks it up and unrolls it, "It looks like the blueprints for a machine...meant for dimensional transportation?!" Tails states.

"Dimensional transportation, huh? Then I guess that explains what Robotnik has been up to lately." Shadow says.

"But why would Eggman want to leave to another dimension if conquering Mobius is his main focus?" Sonic questions.

"I don't know, but if this base is where he built this device at, I'm willing to bet it's still here." Tails says.

"And if that device is here, the Master Emerald is too." Knuckles adds.

"But if we want to find Eggman, we'd have to use the Master Emerald to power that device so we could get to him." Shadow says.

"Aw no. Not happening. Sorry. If Eggman had to use the Master Emerald just to travel to another dimension, then it means he doesn't have it to power a way back, so he's stuck there, and if you ask me, that's probably for the best that Eggman stays gone for good." Knuckles says, crossing his arms.

"I wouldn't be so sure Knuckles. He is Doctor Eggman after all, he has an IQ of 300. I believe the Master Emerald was only a backup to power the device here on Earth while he focused his alternatives on mass producing his robots and machines. It is possible he could return by powering a similar machine with his other power sources." Tails says.

"Which means we'd have to find him and stop him right away, and the only way we could do that is by using the Master Emerald, Knux." Sonic says.

"Urgh. Hasn't the Master Emerald been taken and used enough already?" Knuckles says.

"AS YOU SAID EARLIER, ANGEL ISLAND IS STILL BEING ELEVATED BY ANTI GRAVITY DEVICES INSTALLED BY EGGMAN TO KEEP THE ISLAND AFLOAT EVEN WITH THE MASTER EMERALDS ABSENCE. THERE IS NO REASON TO FORBID USE OF THE MASTER EMERALD." Omega points out.

"...Fine. But only this once." Knuckles says.

"Then let's go to the top to find that device so we can get to Eggman and stop whatever he's doing." Shadow says, "Tails, I trust you can find a way to activate it?"

"With these blueprints on hand, it should no be problem unless Eggman has a tight security system on it." Tails responds to Shadow, who nods.

Sonic then turns to the elevator. "Then let's go find that device and Eggman so we can-"

"DESTROY HIM." Omega interrupts. "Uh...yeah, sure." Sonic frowns at the interruption before smirking and looking at Shadow. "Hey, Shads, I'll race you to the top."

"You're on, faker." Shadow says as he boosts off with Sonic to the elevator, both of them pressing the button to ascend to the highest level. "Oh boy..." Tails mutters.

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"So, that's the machine?" Sonic asks as he and the others stand out in a large area where the sunlight shined in. They were standing on a massive metal platform built on the mountaintop, hidden by the tip of the mountain, which was split into four separate parts by beams that held them up.

"Yes. It's bigger than I expected, but I guess it'd have to be in order to generate a moon sized portal..." Tails said as he began trekking towards the massive object in the middle of the platform which rose out of opening in it. The others did so as well.

"There's the Master Emerald." Knuckles pointed to the large green crystal which was inserted into the side of a slot on the one hundred and fifty four metre high machine. It glowed, but didn't illuminate the area or mountainside thanks to the sunlight.

The group then moved towards the machine at a faster pace and reached it with haste. The pylon looked to be a massive four sided monolith where at the top there was a tetrahedron with three sides that split open to reveal a cannon-like tube where the dimensional doorway was emitted from.

"These are surprisingly simple controls." Tails remarked as he looked over the panel on it's operating console which was situated directly next to the pylon. There was only one keyboard, a large switch and three small ones to the left and two dials to the right.

"Hey, what's this thing supposed to be?" Sonic questioned as he looked at a large attachment connected to the left side of the pylon from where he faced it. "Some kind of fuel tank? Why would this be here if the Master Emerald is what powers it?" Sonic asked as he kicked it to see if it was filled or empty.

"THAT IS NO FUEL TANK. THAT IS A MK3 B-30 'FAT MAN' ATOMIC BOMB." Omega alerted him suddenly.

Sonic's eyes shrunk as he stepped away slowly. "Heh, how predictable of Eggman of all people to name a bomb 'fat man'." Sonic says, still uneasy about having kicked a nuclear bomb.

"Why in Solaris' name is there a damn nuclear weapon next to a dimensional transportation device?" Shadow questions, smirking slightly at Sonic's fright of the explosive as he stepped away from it.

"POSSIBLY AS A MEANS EGGMAN INTENDED TO USE TO DESTROY THIS PYLON AS TO ENSURE NOTHING CAN LOCATE HIM." Omega said as he walked up and began scanning the device with his eyes. He opened up the sub panel on the bomb and looked it over. "THIS NUCLEAR BOMB WAS MEANT TO DETONATE AND DESTROY THE BASE. IT APPEARS THE CHARGE DID NOT DETONATE BECAUSE OF ONE UNCONNECTED WIRE FROM THE TIMER TO THE BOMB ITSELF. IT IS RARE TO SEE A MISTAKE MADE BY DOCTOR EGGMAN IN CONSTRUCTING, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE ONE OF THE DOCTOR'S INCOMPETENT LIEUTENANTS COULD HAVE BEEN PUT IN CHARGE OF THIS." Omega said.

"Hmm.... Huh, Eggman installed quite the security system on this thing." Tails announced as he typed on the keyboard.

"Can you crack it?" Shadow asked, crossing his arms in the way he usually did.

"Well, let's see." Tails said. He began typing into the keyboard. It carried on for a while, the foxes attempts at hacking the device did. Seconds turned into minutes. The fox, while skilled at technology and an intelligent mind indeed, found no progress while attempting to hack into the machine and bypass the security firewall, it was simply too complex for even him. Eggman had poured every bit of his mind into creating this one, that was for sure. Then, the fox finally hit something, his hacking had managed to finally make some small progress at last after the long wait. "I did it, I got past the firewall!" Tails cheered in success.

Suddenly, there was a loud boom of sound from underneath the platform, which sounded distinctively like the clanking of metal. A hum was also heard as if there was another elevator rising underneath the platform much like the one the group ascended in.

"What was that? What did you do?" Shadow said, clenching the handle of his gun tight.

"Uh....um.... I don't know.... maybe it's some sort of defense mechanism that activates once the first firewall is passed...." Tails guesses.

"First firewall? You mean there's more?" Sonic says.

"Yes, unfortunately. There's more, and the others after it are even more complex..... oh dear...." Tails says.

The humming became louder then, getting closer and closer until it stopped and was replaced by a rattling sound as a large square shaped section of the floor folded out and six cylinder shaped tubes rose from it with hatches on the top. Then, before anyone could speak, the hatches flew open and Eggrobos jumped out rapidly, swarming around the group from up above, elevating themselves with their jetpacks as they fired their plasma guns at them. There was twenty six of them in total initially.

"Woah!" Sonic bellowed as he dodged the shots flying at him, "Well it looks like some of Egghead's bots got saved for me after all!" Sonic says before leaping into the air and preforming a spin dash on three of the Eggrobos, destroying them as more came out of the tubes.

"WORTHLESS CONSUMER MODELS DETECTED, MURDER MODE ACTIVATED!" Omega said as his own plasma repeaters rose from both of his wrists before he began firing his own green bolts of burning plasma, which zoomed past the blue ones fired by the airborne Eggrobos and pierced through their torsos and heads.

"Directive: Manually detonate MK3 B-30 'Fat Man' Atom Bomb." One of the Eggrobos said out loud in it's monotonous robotic voice as it landed and trudged towards the undetonated nuclear explosive before falling over as Shadow shot it between the eyes. "They're trying to detonate the bomb, we have to destroy them all!" Shadow hollered.

"Here, use this EMP device I invented recently! It'll disable them" Tails says as he went to chuck a round metal object with a pin on it towards Shadow, but was stopped from doing so as a metal rod slammed into the back of his head and knocked him to the floor, Tails yelped in pain right before the same rod was pressed to his back and electricity was emitted from it, electrocuting and shocking the poor fox.

Two Eggrobos grabbed him by his arms and yanked him up. Tails could now clearly see another Eggrobo in front of him, the one that wielded the rod he was struck with.

"Your kind disgusts me, organic weakling." Said the Eggrobo wielding the taser rod, and in the accent of a militant Frenchman as well. It appeared as a blue colored variant of Eggrobo that had what looked like a bicorne hat on it's head, along with a big red badge on it's torso.

"Luckily for you, we can fix you." The awfully Napoleonic Eggrobo said, pointing it's taser rod towards a pod like device that rose from the ground behind them, "Throw him into the Roboticizer." It ordered.

"Sonic! Help!" Tails yelled, making Sonic turn his attention away from wrecking Eggrobos.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled back as he ran over at fast speeds to spin dash the lead Eggrobo, which spun it's body around in a three hundred and sixty degrees angle to swing the taser rod, hitting Sonic just in time and knocking him into the side of the pylon. Sonic grunted, being hurt by the attack and looked up to dodge just as the lead Eggrobo fired some manner of electrical arc at him from the rod.

"You're better than the mooks, so you must be the leader then." Sonic presumed. The blue Eggrobo adjusted it's bicorne and stood there, still stoic. "I am the overseer of this base, it is my job to ensure all threats violating the premises are destroyed or roboticized. Prepare for your destruction." The lead answered.

"I gotcha' little buddy!" Knuckles said as he ran up fast and punched the two Eggrobos carrying Tails away, caving in their robotic bodies and destroying them. "You alright?" Knuckles inquired as Tails stood. "Yeah. Now let's get that one!" Tails affirms.

"You pathetic organics are no match for the ingenuity of Doctor Robotni-" The overseer almost finished before Sonic dashed into it, knocking it onto it's back. It stood up and touched the marks Sonic's spines cut into it's torso. It had managed to endure the attack which would have killed any other robot under normal circumstances due to it's more durable chasis.

"You have cut me, organic, so I shall repay you in kind." The overseer said as it grabbed the rod and pulled it off to reveal the razor sharp blade of an epee underneath, the rod glowed with electricity as the overseer hurled it at Knuckles. The rod struck the Echidna on his forehead, making his eyes widen as it shocked him.

The blue Eggrobo dashed forward at Tails with the epee and attempted to slash him with precisely calculated swings. The Fox had dodged by flying upwards with the use of his tails.

The left hand of the overseer then shot off towards Sonic and managed to grab him by the arm as it pulled him closer with a cable. The overseer attempted to pierce the Hedgehog by thrusting the epee at him, but Sonic saw it coming and leaped over the head of the robot before it's hand could reattach to it's arm and then he began to run in circles, wrapping the cable around the lead Eggrobo.

It used the epee to cut the cable and free itself at the cost of leaving it's other arm handless and caught in the cable around itself. Knuckles then recovered and made over and threw a punch into the side of the Napoleonic Eggrobo's head, cracking the metal alloy it was composed of and knocking the bicorne off of it's head. However, the last thing the Echidna expected was to see the barrel of a small gun mounted on top of the Eggrobo's head, hidden by it's hat. He ducked to the side to dodge the beam it fired at him suddenly.

Bullets fired by Shadow, who was busy dealing with the myriad of other Eggrobos then zoomed by and picked off the gun mount off the Eggrobo's head, and one penetrated a weak spot on the back of the head, coming out through the right eyeball of the robot.

It then outstretched it's arm, holding the epee out as it started to rapidly spin around and move with it's jetpack, attempting to hit anything it could. Tails swooped down and picked Knuckles up by the arm to save him from the overseers attack as Sonic jumped up and spin dashed down onto the head of the machine, making it flatter and bending it's shape as he dealt a fatal blow to the enhanced robot. It lost grip of the eppe, which flew into the head of another Eggrobo.

The robot falls over, deactivated by having it's machine brain crushed.

"Shadow, catch!" Tails throws the EMP device he had earlier to the black Hedgehog, who turned and caught it before chucking it down into one of the Eggrobo tubes. The EMP device let off it's effect and sent out a wave that disabled all of the Eggrobos still in stasis under the platform. The wave even traveled outward and disabled the Eggrobos that were already active. Everyone put themselves at ease now that the fight was ended.

"Tails, do you have any more of those?" Knuckles asks him. Tails shakes his head. "I only made one. Why?"

"If that security wave was activated by just passing the first firewhatever on the computer, I have the feeling there's more than just one, maybe some security measure for each firewall. And if what I'm thinking is true, it might be a good idea to have more of them." Knuckles said, voicing his thoughts.

The lights in the platform then flickered on and off, the computer began to flicker, and soon, everything went dark, with only the sunlight illuminating the platform.

"Wait, did the power just go out?" Sonic questioned as everyone looked at what just occurred.

"Umm...Tails, I know I don't like a lot of technobabble and what not, but tell me, could it be possible something vital...say, a generator could have gotten hit by the EMP too?" Knuckles says.

"I-I don't know. If those tubes for some reason lead to the bases main generator, it's possible it could have gotten deactivated as well, or even outright bricked since I designed the EMP to permanently disable the power source of something." Tails says.

"CAN CONFIRM. MAIN GENERATOR OFFLINE. IF THE GENERATOR HAS BEEN BRICKED BY THE EMP AS YOU SAY IT POSSIBLY COULD, A NEW POWER SOURCE WILL BE REQUIRED TO POWER DOCTOR EGGMAN'S MACHINE." Omega says.

"But the Master Emerald is powering the machine itself, not the generator, so how can't we use it." Shadow said, genuinely confused at this parallel.

"THE MASTER EMERALD IS INSERTED INTO A POWER SLOT THAT DIRECTS POWER TO THE MACHINE ITSELF, BUT THE SLOT CAN ONLY DIRECT THE MASTER EMERALD'S POWER TO THE PYLON IF THE SLOT ITSELF IS BEING POWERED IN ORDER TO DO SO AS IT IS DESIGNED TO ONLY BE POWERED BY THE MAIN GENERATOR, SO THE MASTER EMERALD CANNOT POWER BOTH. NO DOUBT PLANNED THAT WAY BY EGGMAN." Omega explains.

"Shouldn't there be a backup or auxiliary power?" Knuckles asks.

"AFFIRMATIVE. BUT BACKUPS HAVE BEEN STRUCK BY THE EMP WAVE AS WELL." Omega says.

"Wait, shouldn't you have been disabled too?" Sonic says, confused.

"I AM MUCH MORE ADVANCED THAN THOSE WORTHLESS CONSUMER MODELS, I WAS ABLE TO TANK THE WAVE AND CONTINUE OPERATING." Omega reveals.

"If the main generator has been bricked by my EMP, I may be able to solve this by building a new power slot like the one the Master Emerald is in and reconnecting that one to the new one I build. We just use a Chaos Emerald or two to power it, and since the Master Emerald's slot runs independent of the Master Emerald itself, we wouldn't need all the Chaos Emeralds." Miles suggests.

"Then we need to start looking right away. If we're going to find Eggman, it's going to take a lot of work to get past the firewalls even if we solve this power crisis." Sonic says.

"While you guys do that, I'm going to go get some more help. Eggman's going to have a massive home field advantage wherever he's went and that's for sure." Knuckles says.

"And I'm going to go make some adjustments to the Tornado one. Since the wormhole the pylon shoots out stops in space, we're going to need something capable of carrying up there." Tails informs them.

"Alright then. Let's do this!" Sonic says, "Hey Shadow, last one to find a Chaos Emerald is a faker." He says before boosting off. "You're on, again!" Shadow says before doing the same.


	4. Incursion at Geonosis

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Hypori, eighteen days after first contact...  
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Eggman adjusted his sleeves and headset as he sat in his Eggmobile which was rising up through an upwards tunnel of some sort.

"Are the ships prepared and ready?" Eggman asks eagerly through the microphone on his headset.

"Yes sir. The demonstration will commence as soon as you give the order." Orbot answers his master.

"Good. You are dismissed for now, but remember to keep an eye on the Death Egg while we go for this demonstration." Eggman replies.

"You can count on us Doctor! We'll make short work of anything that comes to attack us with these new armaments in no time!" Cubot said over the microphone before it cut out.

The Eggmobile finished it's rise and took it's place in a new space. It now sat in a spot in the middle of what could be recognized as the bridge of a ship, specifically, the bridge of the Final Fortress, the Egg Fleet's flagship, which had received a heavy overhaul much like all the ships in the Egg Fleet. The marine life inspired ships that used to populate the Egg Fleet had been discarded to make way for the new generation, as they weren't fit for serving as warships any longer, and as such, they were scrapped and used to help create new Egg ships.

The Doctor had decided to reuse the innovative design he had used when his Empire controlled ninety nine percent of the world months ago, back when he had the jackal mercenary Infinite working for him, back when he still possessed the Phantom Ruby, a wonderful trinket that was unfortunately destroyed. He stepped out from his Eggmobile and walked closer to the viewing glass of the bridge, looking out at the stars from the glass. His second in command, Snively entered the bridge and quickly trotted over, saluting him and informing him the ships they had prepared for the demonstration, precisely twenty two, were ready.

Ivo nodded and started to give directives to the various Egg Pawn and SWATbot crew in the bridge before stepping back into his Eggmobile.

"Engage the Hyperdrive." Eggman says, pointing his arm forward. The stars seen outside the viewports began to elongate before soon turning into a blue tunnel as they traveled through Hyperspace to reach their destination; The Geonosis system.

Eggman took the moment to admire the progress he had made. Although the number of ships in his armada had been reduced to just five thousand, it was much, much more powerful and equipped to face off against the ships of this galaxy. Reverse engineering the turbolasers, weapons and hyperdrive that was salvaged was mostly easy, the only minor problem was working out a substitute for what made them function. The Tibanna and blaster gas that allowed turbolasers and blasters to work was easy to replicate with the right machinery, allowing them to have a steady supply of it that wouldn't run out anytime soon. The same was done with Hypermatter as well to power the Hyperdrives, though, it was not as easily replicated as Tibanna or blaster gas.

There was fifteen of the Minor-class Cruisers accompanying six Major-class Battleships, which flew alongside the Final Fortress Eggman was aboard. The ships had been given not only an overhaul in weaponry, but size. The Imperial-II class, Avenger, which had attacked them was far larger than any of the ships in the Egg Fleet previously, so the size of the new generation of Egg ships had to be adjusted.

The Minor-class was a decent cruiser at over nine hundred metres long at it's tweaked size. It was armed well enough to battle other ships in it's weight class and was capable of acting as a carrier for some squadrons of Egg Fighters to launch out of it's ventral hangar. It also classified as an assault ship purposed to transport large amounts of Egg Army Units, up to anywhere from five to ten thousand, to land using it's teleportation device. It sported four dorsel Octuple Barbette turbolaser cannons, ten dorsel and ventral point defense lasers, thirty quad turbolasers with fifteen on the starboard and port sides, as well as five Ion cannons port and starboard. It was fast with it's enhanced Ion sublight engines, and incredibly durable with it's vacuum sealed plasma-steel hull, and unlike the older generation of Egg ships, the new ones had reverse engineered ray and particle shielding. It carried over twenty or so Egg Fighters in it's hangar to assist it in dogfighting with other enemy fighters.

The new version of his Major-class battleship was without a doubt, one of the most powerful things Eggman has ever engineered, surpassed only by the refitted Final Fortress. It was made to be over one point six kilometers in length, much like the Imperial-II class Avenger. With the shape it had at that length, it was easily capable of sporting more weapons than even the Imperial counterpart. Ten Octuple Barbette turbolasers dotted the top and bottom of the ship, operated by stationary AI's to increase accuracy. There was a total of eighty heavy turbolaser batteries, twenty fore and thirty port and starboard. To make dealing with any enemy fighters easier, twelve point defense lasers dotted the top and bottom of the battleship's hull. The ship had ten Heavy Ion cannons with four being mounted port and starboard and two mounted on the bow. Additionally, it had twenty lighter dorsel and ventral turbolasers to add to it's firepower. It was a truly formidable warship. Though it was formidable, it only carried ten Egg Fighters, making fighter support something the Major-class battleship was reliant on.

But no other ship was as heavily armed as the Final Fortress. The massive ship had it's hull extended to such a point the Major-class was only a quarter of it's size. The Final Fortress mounted a staggering one hundred heavy turbolaser batteries split in fifty on the dorsel and ventral side accompanied by twenty Octuple Barbette turbolasers on the dorsel and ventral sides as well. The port and starboard sides of the ship were lined with eighty quad turbolasers, and thirty five heavy Ion cannons. There was a heavy focus of point defense weapons around the tall bridge of the whale shark inspired vessel, fifty or so of the laser turrets would make short work of any squadron daring enough to try striking at the bridge. Ten additional quad turbolasers and twenty point defense turrets on the rear made the stern a well armed section as well.

Now all that was left for the good doctor to do was to test out this firepower in the Geonosis system, once they reached it.

"Sir, what should we select as targets when we arrive in the system?" Snively asks, sitting down in his own command chair on the bridge.

"Why the planet itself of course. I'm going to make my show of firepower by carving my face into the planet itself!" Eggman says. Snively blinks.

"Sir? Carve your face into the planet?" Snively says in perplexity.

The blue tunnel of Hyperspace vanished then and there to greet them instead was the vastness of space. The vastness of space and the planet of Geonosis, which they had reached at last. The twenty two ships were flying above the planetary ring around Geonosis, near the end, safely away from the debris of the ring. Accelerating at full speed ahead, they soon would reach the exosphere at the speed their Eggman tweaked Ion engines carried them.

"I'll show you Snively. Let the demonstration begin now! All gunners, prepare to fire and make sure you aim away from the native populace and the foundries we came for." Eggman said.

The many dozens upon dozens upon dozens of turbolasers on the hulls of the ships then turned, rotating to take aim, preparing to unleash their barrage. The obese scientist reared his right arm back before throwing it forward to point.

"FIRE!" He shouted.

As soon as the word was said, the barrage was unleashed. A massive number of red turbolaser bolts were fired and flew down to the surface of the planet in a show of their range and fire rate, which made it look as if hundreds of bolts were being fired. The hundreds of bolts exploded on the surface, leaving behind only craters and destruction. Much of the landscape was being destroyed, rendered to nothing more than fiery crumbling carnage as the rain of turbolaser bolts fell upon the surface.

"Sir? Isn't that enough? Aren't you worried the native population will view us as enemies or maniacs for this?" Snively glances over at his uncle, who was enjoying the spectacle.

"There is no need to worry, they cannot drive away our forces when we get the foundries, and besides, we only want the foundries and nothing else. So long as they keep their distance and do not even think of trying something against us, we will leave them be, maybe even offer them rations and other minor resources to keep them under control. But about what you said concerning 'enough', we haven't even begun to get into our maximum firepower yet!" Eggman says.

Concussion missiles and Proton torpedos were fired from ventral tubes on the Final Fortress and Major-class battleships. The Octuple Barbette turbolasers then began to open up as well, causing as much, if not more destruction to the surface as the other turbolasers were by themselves.

Soon after several hundred more bolts were fired, the barrage ended and the turbolaser rain ceased. Standing up from the Eggmobile, Eggman walked to the viewport and took a good look at the results of their test bombardment. On the surface, there was the striking image of Eggman's symbol, the outline of it blasted into the surface of the planet perfectly. It smiled brightly in the ground, the systems on the bridge brought back an estimate for it's diameter, exactly six hundred kilometres in height and one thousand and one hundred in width.

"An excellent demonstration Doctor Robotnik." Snively congratulated him on the firepower show and what his reverse engineering had accomplished, "Shall we move on to phase two of our plans now?"

"Indeed. Teleport our army down to the surface to secure those foundries." Eggman says, admiring his symbol that had just been shot into the surface. Snively simply gave a salute.

"Sir, sensors are detecting a ship has been detected moving away from the planet." One of the Egg Pawn crewmen alerts them suddenly. The holographic device built into the new Eggmobile projected a local map showing their ships as green dots. An orange one was quite some distance away from the Egg ships, as if fleeing. It was a small ship. Eggman pressed a button on the projector to display the ship. It was identified as a small, lone Tartan patrol cruiser that was trying to fly away from the scene as quickly as possible.

"Hmm? What's this? A little pest trying to run away? Well I say it's just in time for another demonstration! Fire at that ship!" Eggman ordered.

As the Tartan tried to escape desperately, the quad turbolasers on the right side of one of the Minor-class Cruisers began to fire at the fleeing Tartan. Bolts zipped past the fleeing Tartan as four impacted the vessel, taking it's shields offline as another hit, making the vessel go up in flames as it imploded.

Eggman gave out a laughed at the near instant destruction of the fleeing ship as Snively repeated commands over his own headset, having swarths of Egg Army robots teleported down to the surface to secure the operational droid foundries.

"Sir, a signal was detected being sent to another system by the fleeing ship before it's destruction." One of the SWATbot crewmen reports.

"Well, if it called any more ships, then I say let them come, I want to see just how well we fair against them now." Eggman says fearlessly as ever.

"But sir? Wouldn't allowing the enemy to know our presence here at this planet after we conquer it be detrimental to our cause? It could only mean multiple attempts at retaking this world will be made?" Snively pointed out.

"Well, if they do, they'll be sent running right back to where they came from! Anything they try to send will be blown out of the sky, and anything they land will be hunted down and destroyed. This will be one of the many worlds I conquer to convert into factory worlds. When I have them fixed up into proper Eggman Empire territories, they'll be pumping out robots for our army by the million- No, billions!" Eggman stated as he went and sat back down into the Eggmobile.

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Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Hastily, a figure marched down a metal corridor. The shoes of the figure made a distinct tapping noise that could be heard throughout the corridor as the figure marched. The figure, clad in an olive green uniform adjusted their hat as they entered a new dark room. In the middle of the room appeared some sort of dome, but the figure knew exactly what this was. He cleared his voice to announce his presence. He was eager to get this over with as soon as possible, after all, he had important business to attend elsewhere. His personal AT-AT was in dire need of some repainting on it's head.

The sound of air pressure was heard as the top of the dome lifted suddenly, being raised higher upwards by the beam it was connected to. The Sith lord inside the dome turned in their swivel seat to face the Major General.

"What is it this time?" Vader spoke, feeling annoyance at his meditation being interrupted by Maximilian.

"The Emperor desires to speak with you, Lord Vader. He says it is an important matter and that he feels you should be told of it immediately." General Veers informed Vader.

"Very well." The Sith stood and stepped out of the chamber. The general dismissed himself and took his leave as the right hand of the Emperor began his walk to the holo booth. Vader's breathing echoed down the empty metal corridors of his flagship as he walked to his destination. Upon reaching the holo booth after a trek, the doors to the room slid shut as the room itself dimmed. The Sith lord knelt as the large blue hologram of his master's face appeared in the small room, looking down upon him.

"You requested me, master?"

"Vader." Came the imposing voice of the Emperor, "I have felt a great disturbance. As if the the very fabric of time and space itself was torn and ripped for something else, something not of this world to enter..."

"I have too felt this disturbance, master." Vader returned.

"I feel the presence of a great mind with more ambition than even myself. Something, or someone even more petty. A growing threat no doubt. We have a new enemy."

"Shall I lead a confrontation to it, my master?" Vader looked up at Palpatine.

"Yes, locate whatever came and destroy it." Sheev responds, giving Vader permission to begin a mission to eliminate this new enemy.

"As you wish. It will be done my master." Vader affirms before standing as the hologram powers off. The Sith lord then turned and exited the room to trek down the stretching corridors and halls of metal that made up the interior of the Executor.

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"I mean nothing by it, but that joke was just not funny." Captain Firmus Piett said in honesty to the Fleet Admiral, the incompetent Ozzel.

"And I suppose you have a better one?" Kendal retorted.

"Well, what did the Executor wear during it's commissioning ceremony?" Piett asked, Ozzel simply gave him a look and slightly turned his head.

"A bow TIE."

Ozzel's head snapped back behind him as he heard small laughs from some of the crew and ensigns. He had once more been made to look unintelligent.

"Carbon flush!" He swore, "You yeggs, that was trite! You wouldn't know humor even if it hit you in the choobies. If only I could squeeze your necks like.... Lord Vader can...." He said as the tall Sith lord walked out on the bridge and approached him. The suppressed laughter from the crew and junior officers died down as Darth Vader walked among them.

"I had not the idea a senior officer like you could show such a vulgar side over being bested in the tier of humor smugglers deal in, Admiral." Vader denounced Ozzel.

"Well, sir, I..."

"Has there been any sign of Needa since his last reconnaissance?" Vader questioned him.

"Sir, we have received no signals from the Avenger or Needa since their departure to Hypori on the last reconnaissance." Piett informed the Supreme Commander.

"Set a course for Hypori. I want that ship found Captain." Vader says.

"There was another thing sir." Ozzel cut in to speak, "We received a signal this hour from a ship near Geonosis. We couldn't identify the class but it was a distress signal requesting help against an entire fleet that was bombarding the planet sir. The transmission ended before anything else could be said."

"An entire fleet you say? Of what? Pirates? Rebels?"

"We don't know sir, all we were given was that there is a fleet of unknown size."

"Very well, set coordinates for Geonosis, if the signal was received in this hour, then the fleet is still most likely there." Vader says as he begins to tread off.

"As you wish sir, it will be done." Kendal obeys.

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"Remember to get underneath the plate too." Veers reminded the engineers painting the spots on his personal AT-AT's head that required some touches here and there. He always had to remind the engineers about the one place you wouldn't suspect any spots of damage or indention to be, the underneath of the metal plating on the laser weapons mounted on the sides of the AT-AT's head.

He then resumed painting on the foot himself. From time to time, the general himself sometimes liked to get personally involved in the maintenance of the AT-AT's he respected so much, especially Blizzard 1, his own. Not only because he liked to be up close and personal with the machines himself, but because it worked to boost the morale of the crew, engineers and army personnel to see their commanding officer work hard on not only being the officer but working manually himself as well, and it worked well, as when he was seen working, every other person worked faster to complete their assignments.

However, he had to set down his painting tool at the moment as one of the Lieutenants informed him that Vader wished to speak over the monitor. The general moved from the walker bays to his own personal quarters. The quarters was fairly big, as to be expected of a major general's personal dorm. In the quarters there was a large monitor on the wall behind his work desk where he usually relaxed to handle assignments or other military related issues. He pressed a button on the wall outlet to brighten the room as he stepped in front of the monitor. It flickered on to show the Sith lord on the bridge.

"General Veers, prepare a military force, we are making to Geonosis and anticipate enemy engagement in space and on ground."

"Right away sir, we will be ready." Veers replied, the Sith lord said nothing and logged off as the general spoke to the bay over the intercom.

"SC1, prepare two companies of Sand force and the recon fleet immediately, enemy engagement in space and land is expected soon." Maximilian's voice came over the intercom.

Hearing the command, the personnel scrambled and hurried to prepare. From their interior barracks and quarters, Stormtroopers marched to the armory to suite up in Sandtrooper gear. The engineers and crewmen prepped their recon fleet of 74-Z Speeder bikes and All Terrain Scout Transports. Sentinel landing crafts and a Theta AT-AT barge were manned in the hanger as the personnel hooked up vehicles to them. Blizzard 1 was prepped and loaded into the Theta barge at Veers' command as well. The Stormtroopers waited on standby as a few others who lagged behind joined their numbers, suited up and ready for combat.

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Vader stared out of the viewing glass of the bridge. Kendal was busy barking orders on the monitor in the back, over at the security station, giving his strategy out for the other four Star Destroyers in the Death Squadron on how best it would be to engage any enemy ships in the debris of Geonosis' ring.

It was tolerable, as he had Piett present to balance out Ozzel's ignorance. He would just place the Captain in charge of the fleet should they come to fire with another fleet.

Soon, they had exited Hyperspace and were near the planet of Geonosis. Vader immediately signaled for the Admiral and Captain to deploy the fleet forward and get closer to the planet to make sure nothing got off the system, if anything was there. They did so, and the Executor moved in, guided by the four Imperial Star Destroyers that accompanied it.

"Sir, sensors are detecting multiple objects amongst the debris of the planetary ring. Should we investigate to see if this is the fleet that was reported?." Piett said to Vader.

"We've also detected a wreckage, Tartan class patrol cruiser, blown completely to pieces." Ozzel walks up and says.

"Captain, move our ships forward to investigate. Admiral, tell General Veers to deploy his companies for surface investigation." Vader simply tells them. Ozzel and Piett nodded and did so.

The Sith lord then gazed out of the viewing ports and down to Geonosis. He observed the massive new thing that decorated the planet's surface, the strange symbol that was outlined on it. It was abstruse for Vader to grasp why it was there or how it had been made, but he left it at the guess that it was made via orbital bombardment and left it at that as he regarded it.

"Sir, sensors are reporting the detected objects are moving closer towards our fleet, should I notify all ships to be ready to man their battlestations if the objects are hostile?" Firmus Piett questioned the Sith lord.

"Yes, I want all batteries on our ships to fire upon anything that attacks, any enemy we encounter is to be destroyed as quickly as possible. We must also ensure that Veers' craft are protected from surprise attacks." Vader says before one of the crewmen suddenly says something to get their attention.

"Sir, multiple fast moving craft have just been picked up on sensors moving towards the landing crafts!"

Vader took a look out of the viewport, being able to see the landing craft flying down to the surface. And at that moment, the first shots are fired, a burst of red bolts and a landing craft explodes into flames as a group of five flying objects zoom by after firing upon the Sentinels.

The alarm goes off. "twenty two large ships detected off to the portside, sir." Piett announced.

To the northwest of the Super Star Destroyer, seemingly a few hundred red turbolaser bolts began to blow out all the debris to that direction until a fleet of unknown ships was revealed to the Imperials. But the fleet did not stop firing after destroying the heavy clouds of debris blocking them, their red turbolasers pelted the Executor and it's Imperial Star Destroyer guides. They were under attack, heavy attack, and retaliated by opening up on the fleet with their own turbolasers

"Sir, the shields are absorbing heavy damage from that fleet." Ozzel warned, stunned by the sudden attack.

"Our ships are engaging...." Piett alerted.

"Deploy squadrons of fighters to protect those landing craft. We must not lose another senior officer." Vader barks at them before storming back to the monitor.

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"Sir! We're under attack by fighters!" One of the pilots yelled.

"All shuttles, take evasive maneuvers, we must reach the surface. TIEs are on the way to support us. Send all power to thrusters and change your paths!" Veers said over the comlink, also taken by surprise at the sudden attack.

Their journey to the surface wouldn't be much longer as long as no other shuttles were shot down. Veers knew this ride down was more than likely to be more dangerous than what they could possibly encounter on the surface, so he placed his full trust in the numerable pilots of the TIE squadrons to get them there safely. He had a feeling though, that perhaps there was something worse left to be seen on the ground, but he shook the feeling to focus on what's at hand.

The Executor and it's Impstars returned fire to the attacking fleet, both pelting each others shields with dozens to hundreds of turbolasers. The good doctor's ships were able to fire more than their Imperial counterparts, but no winner would emerge so quickly. The fight had only just begun and it would last for a while as the Imperials had the Executor on their side, and there was no finer ship than the Super Star Destroyer.


	5. Battle at the Foundry

Loud sounds like thunder, booming thunder raged as the ships continued their barrage on each other. Red and green turbolaser bolts passed and collided. Twin ion engine starfighters screamed through space to engage the groups of red Egg Fighters that were flying to attack the Sentinel landing craft and AT-AT barge.

The Final Fortress was down to the level of the Executor, facing off against the much larger Imperial dreadnought. The Major and Minor classes had flown forward to have their own showdown against the Star Destroyers.

"Sir, enemy fighters are approaching the bridge in attack formation." Snively said to Eggman.

"Then let them have a taste of our point defense turrets. When they get close enough, put as many holes in them as you can!" The doctor said.

Several TIE Bombers flew towards the large, tall and exposed bridge of the Final Fortress, which was even more so than that of an Imperial Star Destroyer. The craft were expecting an easy bombing run to deal heavy damage to the bridge, or perhaps even knock it out with their proton torpedos. A few of the much better TIE Interceptor fighters guided them along, breaking off from the formation one by one to engage Egg Fighters that came into view to attack the bombers.

The dozens of point defense turrets around the bridge lined up and waited for the right moment before firing one burst at the bombers. Thin red lasers pierced the bombers, hitting their wings, cockpit and even piercing through and hitting the payloads, which destroyed the bombers as the Interceptors suffered the same fate attempting to dodge the multitude of projectiles.

The turbolasers of the Imperial star dreadnought, both heavy, medium and light fired without stop at the enemy ships. The shield remained up and the Executor had a long ways to go before it would take any meaningful damage. But the shield of the Imperial-I class, Conquest, one of the Death Squadron's warships, had began to falter and soon went down after sustaining enough fire.

The fore of the Conquest was blasted apart, pieces of durasteel from the hull blown off and into space. A section of the bow broke off even as the bridge tower had it's deflector shield generator domes blown off along with the sensor array. The dual heavy turbolaser and ion cannons that flanked the bridge tower were shot off of their mounts and destroyed by the incoming fire. The edges of the ship near the aft were torn from their original wedge shape from the fire as it brought an end to the ship's service in the Imperial Navy. The ship split into two large pieces as it was destroyed.

"Sir, they've destroyed the Conquest." Captain Piett said to Vader who watched the whole thing unfold. The Sith lord's anger grew at this. First the Avenger and now the Conquest. His Death Squadron would need replacements for the loss of the two warships, but that would have to come later.

"I want our ships to redirect all fire from the smaller vessels to the largest one, if the large ship falls then we can direct all fire for destroying the smaller ones." Ozzel's voice came as he decided to assert his authority as the Fleet Admiral by ordering the ships to follow his orders, "And I want all ships to direct all power to weapons as well to do it quickly!"

Without hesitation, the turbolasers of the Executor began to fire even more powerful shots at the Final Fortress as the reactor sent more power to it's weapon batteries.

Suddenly, something the Imperial's didn't expect happened, a large explosion on the bridge tower on their dreadnought. A group of Egg Fighters had managed to deliver a high powered proton torpedo payload straight into the side of the towers lower half. The personnel in the tower had to struggle slightly to keep their stance as it happened all of a sudden, and even Vader needed to balance himself from the shaking. But they were not the only one to have taken a hit. The hull of the Final Fortress had taken heavy damage to it's bow from the overcharged turbolasers as it's shields began to fail. Doctor Eggman clenched his fist at the setback before stomping over to his Eggmobile and pressing a button.

"Orbot, Cubot, send more ships to support us, now!" The doctor yelled. Back at the Death Egg, the two robots hurriedly directed more ships to make the jump to Hyperspace.

"Sir, heavy damage has been sustained to some parts of the hull and the shields have faltered." Snively says, giving him the damage report, "The enemy seems to be directing their power output to their weapons."

"Then we'll do the same. Direct our own power output to weapons and give them a taste of return fire!" Eggman says as he points to the Executor from the bridge.

The Major class battleships, along with their Minor cruisers did not follow the same tactic as the Imperials while the Final Fortress focused entirely on the Executor. Instead, they directed power output to weapons and fired away at the Imperial Star Destroyers supporting the Super Star Destroyer.

The effect of the Major and Minor firing upon the supporting Star Destroyers was made known as bits and pieces of the hulls of the warships were blown off in the explosions caused by the never ending rain of red bolts.

"Sir, the Stalker and Tyrant are taking heavy damage from the other enemy vessels. The Devastator isn't holding much better. Right now would be a good time to consider tactical retreat with our fleet outnumbered like this" Piett said, hoping his better judgement would be used.

"I rebuke such a move, look at the damage we've inflicted. If we turn some of our backs now we'll lose our chance at destroying this enemy fleet." Ozzel interjected.

That was when more of the red Egg Fleet ships arrived, much to the dismay of the Imperials. Two dozen more of the Major battleships with four Minor cruisers flying along with each.

"More ships have arrived!?" Vader said in consternation. bright fiery flashes caught their eyes as the Stalker and Tyrant, an Imperial-II and Imperial-I class, were destroyed. The bridge of the Stalker was utterly decimated and most of the Tyrant's side was missing as the Egg Fleet ships drowned them in fire.

Vader simply looked to Ozzel, who shrunk in fear, and then Piett, who tensed. The Executor had then turned some of it's fire away from the Final Fortress and to the Minor classes that were present at the start of the battle. The smaller ships took the fire for a moment before they too were destroyed by the hail of turbolasers from the Executor and Devastator, the former and current flagships of Darth Vader.

"L-Lord Vader, my deepest apologies, I had directed our ships to focus on the enemy command shi... Ahhh..... Agh......Afgfh...."

"Apology accepted, Admiral Ozzel, your service to the Empire surely won't be forgotten." Vader said, turning to show his clenched hand as the foolish Admiral tumbled to the floor clinging to his throat before dying.

"Admiral Piett, take us away from here." Vader said as he walked to the security station.

"....Yes sir." Piett said, relieved that Ozzel was finally gone and wouldn't be around to make any more bad decisions. His relief was such that he almost missed the new promotion Vader gave him.

The end of the space battle neared, damage had been dealt to both sides. Some extensive damage covered parts of five Major battleships and ten of their Minor cruisers had been lost. The Final Fortress required repairs for the damage that had ruined most of the front hull. The engines of the Devastator and Executor fired up as the ships began to pull away to a clearer direction as they prepared for the jump to Hyperspace.

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"Sir, message incoming from Lord Vader." One of the pilots of the shuttles said. General Veers' group had made it into the planet's exosphere safely as the last of their TIE guides broke off to fly back to the Executor and Devastator after dealing with some more Egg Fighters.

"Patch him through." Veers said. Vader's face appeared on the monitor.

"General, there's been a change of plans. The fleet is in disrepair." The Sith lord started. Veers gave him a look of surprise as he continued.

"The enemy fleet was far larger and more powerful than we expected. We are left with no choice but to retreat temporarily, but your mission will continue nevertheless. We will return soon to extract you. You know your mission, investigate the surface for any presence of enemies." Vader stated.

"Understood sir. We will do so immediately and await your return." Veers said. The Sith lord simply ended the transmission as Veers turned his head to the pilots.

"Fly us down as close to one of the Geonosian droid foundries as possible. We'll make an approach from a small distance in the case any hostiles are about." Veers commands. The pilots obeyed and went on that way with the Sentinel craft following as they descended through the exosphere and beyond. Their way to the surface was made soon after some flying and the distance between them and one of the Geonosian droid foundries was short, getting shorter as they flew to it.

"There, take us there to that spot, pilots." Veers said, pointing to a perfect landing place. Obeying again, the Theta landed there as well as the Sentinels. Immediately, Veers' personal AT-AT, Blizzard 1 unfolded it's legs to deploy as the twelve AT-STs carried by three Sentinels were deployed along with Scout Troopers mounting 74-Z speeder bikes, who drove to survey the surroundings. Over one hundred and eight Sandtroopers were deployed from the last two Sentinels with their respective E-Web teams. The Sandtroopers immediately took initiative to spread out over some small ground and make a perimeter around their landing area, where some rock formations could be seen behind.

The entrance to one of the many Geonosian droid foundries could be seen not too far off. The large metal double door to the foundry was visible in the side of some large rocky hills and landscape. That was their destination, the first foundry to investigate. If there was any reason to try and claim Geonosis, it was for the foundries the planet was famous for. Those foundries could create a small army of droids in but a few of hours if need be.

If there were any enemies there, that would almost certainly be what they were after, unless, for some reason, they wanted to claim the gladiatorial arenas on Geonosis instead, which was highly improbable.

"Land somewhere else until we return. Do not stray far from the transports incase you decide to exit them. Veers out." Maximilian said as he ended his transmission to the pilots of the Theta barge and Sentinel dropships, who flew off to land close by while the Imperials began their move to the droid foundry. What awaited them inside remained to be seen.

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"Entrance hall is clear." A Sandtrooper alerted as he moved in with his squad. The squad consisted of several Sandtroopers and two of the Scout Troopers.

"Move in further." General Veers came over the comlink.

Obeying, the squad moved past the hall and into the lobby past it. The arm of the squad's sergeant went up and halted the others.

"Do you hear that?"

"It sounds like.... the factory is in operation."

"Could it be producing droids? But this place seems so empty, there wasn't even a welcoming party."

"Nevermind that, it only means whoever is operating this factory is expecting. Beware of traps."

"Should we spread out?"

"Yeah. TK-7504, 2323, 9056, cover the left with me. 2937, 3847, 4869, 1001, get the right. 849, stay behind and watch the entrance." The sergeant said. The squad split and went down both the left and right service halls from the lobby. A single of the two Scout Troopers held the lobby down.

"Service tunnel ends up here. The main foundry should be to the right."

Silently, the four elite troopers scurried down the ends of the service tunnel and out into the main factory chambers. This was one of the more particularly larger of the foundries on Geonosis. Up high, they could see hundreds of conveyor belts and robotic arms. However, the belts were empty, yet the sound of working machinery could still be heard.

The troopers gave each other glances as they continued to look around.

"The lights in this foundry are on, maybe it's the main generator we hear?" One of the troopers, TK-2323 suggested.

"Then let's check ther-"

A loud crash was heard then, coming from the generator room. The sergeant who was interrupted gave a hand signal as they crept quietly through the foundry. Turning to enter the stairwell upwards, the soldiers made their way to the higher levels. As they closed in on the generator room, small bumps were heard, the light sound of something metallic making contact with something metallic.

The Sandtroopers tensed as they continued, unafraid but wary. The sergeant held up his hand as they came upon the large metal door to the generator room. The sergeant held up three of his fingers, the other three accompanying him stood in front of the door, guns raised. He counted down before muttering 'Breach' and pressing the door button, opening the large metal door for the three Sandtroopers to enter and check the room for hostiles.

There were no hostiles, but there was a Geonosian that looked to have been thrown into some metal crates, which would explain the crash heard earlier. Upon checking it's body, it was easy to see the winged alien was dead. There were no blaster bolts however, but it's neck was thinner than usual and rather deformed from it's original shape, as if the poor bug was strangled to death.

"What in the hell could have done this...?"

"Whoever, or whatever did that could still be around. Stay alert."

The Sandtroopers looked through the rest of the room and began to back out as nothing was found.

"Why was that Geonosian in there?"

"Some of them still roam the foundries these days. Don't know why that poor bugger was here, or whatever it is that killed him. But it makes me wonder if it was the one who started up the generator. And if it was, then wh- Agh.... Agh! Agh!" The Sandtrooper gagged as his throat was grappled tight by the metal hand of a machine humanoid that emerged from the darkness of a corner. As the other three turned to see the situation, the Sandtrooper that was being choked was thrown into them, knocking them down to the floor. The sergeant of the squad quickly raised his E-11 and shot at the perpetrator of the act. The other squadmates quickly did the same as they stood. With a number of blaster bolts hitting it's torso, the metallic humanoid fell forward into the floor, the Sandtroopers ceased fire.

"What is that thing?!"

"It looks like some sort...of droid?"

"Doesn't look like any droid I've ever seen..."

Carefully, one of the squadmates stepped forward to examine the body of the fallen robot. Before he could grab the tip of the head, it's right arm shot forward and grabbed his leg, pulling it out from under him as it's left arm raised and it's fist smashed into the helmet, cracking it open and into pieces that scattered on the floor as blood squirted into the air and poured out onto the cold floor, ending the life of the trooper, whose arms and fingers twitched once more before going limp.

Without hesitation as some traces of the sanguine fluid splashed on their helmets, the others opened fire on the robot. The squad members and their sergeant kept their fire on it for the minute, it was the only way to be sure. Then, the fingers of the sergeant go up. The fire stops. The other two Sandtroopers looked up to the shadow of the corner, tensing as they saw glowing red visors in the dark. There was more.

Reacting instantly, the sergeant pulled one of his thermal detonators up and pressed it's activation button before lobbing it at the corner as he pushed the other Sandtroopers along. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them down the hallway and made it to the stairwell as the thermal detonator exploded behind them.

"Squad, regroup on 849's position!" The sergeant yelled into his comlink, "General Veers, hostile droids have been encountered!"

"Droids?" Veers replied.

"Yes sir. They weren't like any model we've seen before, they looked newer, almost like a B2 unit and protocol droid had a baby sir." The sergeant said as he ran through the main foundry room.

"Understood. Find a suitable position and hold it down. Reinforcements are entering the foundry now." Veers said.

"Squad, find cover and hold position. We got backup coming."

"Sir! We're under attack in the smelting chamber by droids of some type! They got us pinned down!" One of the Sandtroopers who split to search the right side of the foundry suddenly reported.

"Fall back to the lobby trooper. Backup is on the way."

"Sir, we can't! There's too many! I don't think.... I don't....AAGHH!" The comlink fell silent.

"Damn it all!" The sergeant of the squad said, rushing into the lobby with the other two just in time to see more Sandtroopers enter and begin turning over anything useful to make cover, such as furniture, the security desk, and chairs. The sergeant and his two troopers followed suit.

"Here they come!" One of the Sandtroopers shouted as red laser beams flew through the entrances at the back of the large lobby room and flew through the air. These beams were much different than the bolts of the blasters normally seen. The beams glew brighter and had much more length. Quickly, the Sandtroopers fired back from their cover. Their E-11s and T-21s heated up as they returned, firing their own barrage of bolts at the door. The direction of their fire changed as more doors at the end of the large lobby room opened, with more of the robotic figures stepping through to fire at the Imperials.

Their firefight was intense. A few thermal detonators were flung. Several of the Sandtroopers and two Scout Troopers were shot down as four of the robots died from their volley, having sustained too much damage from the blasters to continue operating.

The wall to the left of the lobby cracked suddenly, and out of it burst three new robots, much larger than the ones the Imperials were already busy fighting. One was purple and silver, and in it's hand was a large chainsaw-like sword which it proceeded to slash a Sandtrooper with, severing the poor Imperial's body into two parts as two others with a black and bronze color scheme moved in from behind it and opened fire on the remaining Imperials with the automatic blasters they had for hands. Taken by surprise, the Sandtroopers were mowed down and eliminated, having had no time to react as the robots moved in on them.

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"What's happening? Sergeant, report... What is the situation now? Sergeant, report now." Veers repeated. But he got no response from his comlink.

"Anyone? Report..." Veers said. Again, there was no response.

"Sir, should we send in more troops?"

"No. If they haven't returned, it isn't a good sign." Veers responded to his Lieutenant over the comlink.

"Sir, hostiles spotted!" One of the AT-AT drivers in the head with him suddenly said. Veers immediately looked through his periscope to see, and surely, there were. SWATbots, many of them, accompanied by Egg Fighters wielding their chainsaw blades, and Egg Shooters that opened fire on the Imperials.

"All forces engage! Lay waste to them!" Veers said. He directed the AT-AT to fire upon the robots with it's side mounted medium lasers from afar.

The AT-ST's wasted no time in firing their own laser cannons at the enemies. The heavy firepower from the Imperial vehicles proved more effective at destroying the inventions of Eggman. The robots returned their own fire, firing deadly burning thermal energy blasts from their weapons. The skirmish dragged on as the Imperials gained the upper hand through the power of their vehicles.

That was until the forces of the Egg Army attacked them from the side, coming down from the rocky hills that hid the foundry. Egg Pawns, both older and new generation models, carrying their Egg guns and bazookas, or waving their gun arms around threateningly before firing en masse, Buzzers floated above them, firing thermal energy blasts from their stingers. And one thing the Imperials at least expected to see did show up, the powerful Droideka Mark IIs, which fired down at the Imperials like a turret.

The Sandtroopers got into spread out formations as they returned fire. Blizzard 1 turned and fired it's heavy laser cannons at the hill at Veers' direction. To make matters worse however, three of their AT-ST's were brought down by rockets fired from the Egg Pawns carrying bazookas. And to add to that, new generation Egg Chasers were seen descending down from above to fire their laser beams at Veers' AT-AT, which heated the top of the walker red and began to burn through.

Taking a perfect chance that was given to them as most of the Droideka Mark IIs began to roll down the hill to find a better firing position, Blizzard 1 shifted and fired it's heavy laser cannons at them, destroying three, and then two as they found their position and deployed their shields. Continuing to mow down Sandtroopers, the Droidekas were only finished when the troopers targeted them with PLEX rockets.

The battle soon turned bad and the favor was shifted towards the Egg Army as the Imperials struggled with the sheer amount of enemies there was. It was difficult for even their vehicles to engage this many, and the airborne robots incinerating their troops did not make things better.

Veers called for a tactical retreat. They had already lost forty some troopers in the first sixteen minutes, more wouldn't be helpful. The Scout Troopers provided cover fire with their speeders as the troopers and E-Web teams packed up and moved out, occasionally turning to fire some potshots as they ran. The AT-AT was doomed however. On the ridge of the rocky hills that hid the foundry, multiple Egg Launchers stomped into position and fired their vertical and horizontal missiles at the legs of the AT-AT. The large missiles collided with the legs, and although it required multiple missiles, the large walker was brought to it's knees as one of the legs was blown in half.

The massive war machine plummeted to the ground. Surprisingly, Veers and one of the two pilots had survived. The head was disconnected from the body as the tunnel was severed from the crash. The mighty Blizzard 1 had been felled. Disoriented by the crash, the major general stumbled to rise from his seat, pulling the live pilot from his seat.

"Come on," He coughed from the smoke that filled the air around him, "Get up, we have to retreat!" Veers said as he stumbled out of the back of the severed head of the now destroyed walker.

"General, get in front of us, we'll escort you!" A Sandtrooper said as several of them came over to assist the higher ranking Imperial in retreating back to the landing site of their shuttles.

Looking behind him, Veers became perplexed as he saw the enemies past the Sandtroopers covering his retreat. The hostiles were....taunting them as they retreated. The Egg Fighters seemed to point and laugh as the orange and silver Egg Pawns did some form of mockery by dancing and making gestures like an immature child.

But none of that mattered. The Imperials would have to hold out here on the rocky dustbin that was Geonosis until Lord Vader returned to retrieve them. Veers was surprised at the variety this enemy had, but shocked at how easy they had just drove away two entire Imperial companies. These battle droids, as he thought them to be, were obviously much more formidable, and intelligent, than those of the former Confederacy of Independent Systems.

But he digressed. Right now, he had to focus on fortifying the landing site of their shuttles. Without their shuttles, there was no way they would be getting back to the Executor when Vader returned for them.


	6. Snooping Around as Usual

DS-1 Orbital Station, Alderaan System. Several weeks after the encounter at Geonosis.

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Quietly, a large gathering of Imperials waited on standby inside one of the many hangars of the Empire's most powerful superweapon, the Death Star battlestation, a grand accomplishment of the oversector governor, Wilhuff Tarkin. The battlestation was their tool of fear to keep the local systems in line, for any planet that dared to stand against the Empire put itself in danger of being annihilated by the concave dish composite superlaser of the DS-1.

As for the gathering, it was a show of respect and greeting for the senior officer whose arrival was imminent.

Slowly, a Lambda class shuttle moved into the hanger and parked. The ramp lowered to allow an imposing figure clad in a white uniform trimmed with black and gold to step down from it. His skin was blue like the oceans of Dac, his hair was darkened blue like the surface of Dromund Kaas and his eyes like a red dwarf star. His rank plaque bore six blue, three red and three yellow squares. Behind him, a duo of the Empire's elite Shadow Stormtroopers flanked him closely, ensuring his security with frightening loyalty.

Quickly, an Imperial Lieutenant stepped forward to greet him.

"Welcome aboard the Death Star, Grand Admiral. What is the occasion?"

"I am here to have a conversation with the governor about the Empire's newest problem." The imposing figure answered as he walked, his arms folded behind his back.

"I see, very good sir. Shall I lead you to Grand Moff Tarkin?"

"Immediately if you will. Time is of the essence." The man answered as he exited the hangar with his guards and the lieutenant.

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"So this enemy uses battle droids of some sort? Of custom designed as you put it?" Grand Moff Tarkin questioned as he sat in the high chair of the conference room along with other individuals.

"Yes Grand Moff. The ISB have, at the moment, documented a small variety of these droids on various planets where they have attacked without warning. Some were seen flying, some were were skilled in combined arms, and some were deadly and large enough to fall under the category of a vehicle. Their infantry appear to be incredibly lethal, bringing down a custom enhanced AT-AT like Blizzard 1 easily should serve as a good example." Colonel Wullf Yularen of the Imperial Security Bureau said.

"Why haven't we organized a battlegroup to send to Hypori yet? As Yularen said in his report, every ship, both Imperial and civilian that has traveled to Hypori has vanished. Should that not raise any red flags?" Admiral Conan Antonio Motti spoke up suddenly.

"We have not opted to send a fleet to Hypori yet because we don't know what lies there. Any probe droid sent to the system is destroyed before it can catch a glimpse of anything. We can't risk sending an entire fleet of warships there as we don't know if there could be a larger and more powerful enemy fleet at Hypori in the first place. The possibility they could have interdictors is also a reason why we haven't. The loss of a battlegroup is not something the Emperor would like to hear of in particular." Tarkin informed the Admiral.

"Well, what can we do if even probe droids can't report back on anything there?" General Cassio Tagge questioned.

"I received word that the Emperor himself has called for a tactician he holds in high regard to join us here. As I heard, the Emperor placed him in charge of this entire operation to deal with the new threat." Tarkin answered.

"A tactician?" Came Motti, "Who exactly?"

"That tactician in question would be me." A new voice sounded as a figure entered the room. The high ranking Imperials turned in attention to the figure in a white uniform approach the conference table.

"Ah, Grand Admiral Thrawn, your arrival is timely." Tarkin welcomed him.

"Grand Admiral?!" Motti exclaimed, perplexed as to his knowledge, Thrawn was only a captain last he heard.

"Yes, I was recently promoted by the Emperor after he choose me to oversee our operation here. I must say, Grand Moff, while this battlestation is quite the accomplishment of yourself.... I really never preferred superweapons. To me, they are nothing but a waste of men and resources that could have been used to expand the entirety of the Empire's fleet.... I find myself to be more comfortable taking charge of a ship or fleet, but.... I suppose this will do seeing as the Emperor absolutely desires the defeat of this new enemy of ours." Thrawn said as he took a seat at the table.

Tarkin hid his disappointment at the statement about the Death Star the Chiss made and instead chose to focus on the matter at hand. "Colonel, would you mind going over what we did with the Grand Admiral?" Tarkin asked as he gestured to Thrawn.

Yularen cleared his throat as he held up his datapad. "Two days after the battle Vader's Death Squadron had at Geonosis with an unidentified fleet, multiple planets in the Outer Rim have started to face raids by forces that match the profile of those Major General Veers encountered on Geonosis' surface."

"According to Imperial Intelligence, the attacks have been conducted to put populations under control and to seize resources. A few planets, such as Geonosis, Tatooine, Kamino, Rishi have been reportedly conquered and fortified by this new enemy in the Outer Rim. They've been seen making progress on a build up of some sort, constructing shipyards and ground bases. We suspect that they plan to wage a war, possibly with us, given the amount of infrastructure they have been seen creating."

"As General Veers said when we interviewed him, he saw the hostiles he encountered on Geonosis 'dancing and mocking' his forces as they retreated, in a 'childish and immature manner'." Yularen read off.

".... A.... interesting enemy...." Thrawn simply said.

"That is all, sir."

"Grand Admiral, I trust you overheard our conversation about Hypori. What do you propose we do about that?" Tarkin said, turning his head to the Chiss.

"It would seem making a direct approach to the system with probe droids or ships is nigh impossible as you put it. But there yet may be a way to get eyes into the system without moving there directly." Thrawn begins.

"As you all know, we have, for years now, utilized trackers on small ships and fighters to launch onto other craft so we may track them even should they leave to another system. I propose we try a similar method involving a specialized probe droid designed to lock onto a ship and spy while on the hull." Thrawn proposes.

"Does such a droid even exist?" Motti looks to Yularen.

"Yes actually, the ISB has a special probe droid variant that works similar to a starfighter tracker." Yularen says.

"I trust there are some available on this station already?"

"Yes Grand Admiral, the ISB has a stockpile here."

"Then we will lay a trap to lure some enemy vessels in order to plant one of those droids."

"Such a trap could be costly, their ships always appear in a fleet of dozens and sport the firepower to outgun us if we aren't careful." Motti raised his finger and said.

"Of course, which is why we will use a new tactic." Thrawn informed them, "Tell me, Grand Moff, would it perhaps be possible to acquire a number of Vulture droid units the Separatists used?"

"Yes, easily. Why?" Tarkin Answered with a brow raised.

"I will explain that in a minute, first we must need to decide what system we can lure them to. Preferably, one we could stand to lose should they go there with the intention of conquering." The Chiss said, awaiting their suggestions.

"We could use an unimportant system like Alzoc." Motti suggested.

"No, that system has planets. As Yularen said, they construct shipyards and ground bases on whatever planets they conquer. Giving them Alzoc only means giving more infrastructure and would not be beneficial to our operation." Thrawn refused his suggestion.

"What about Polis Massa? Surely those asteroids wouldn't be that important to lose?" Tagge inserted.

"Indeed it wouldn't, and the asteroids would prove troublesome for them to establish a shipyard...." Thrawn began to think. The room became quiet as the Grand Admiral did. The others in the room gave each other glances every so second.

"Very well. It is decided. Polis Massa will be the system where we lay our trap. Now, as for your answer Tarkin, I will have a squadron of those Vulture droids modified to carry the special ISB probe droids. We will use them to carry and launch the probe droids onto an enemy vessel while our capital ships distract their vessels. After we plant the probes, we make a tactical retreat and then monitor the probe to see what we can discover." Thrawn explained.

"But how will we goad them into traveling to Polis Massa?" Tagge asked.

"It would seem mocking and taunting is in the programming of this new enemies battle droids. We can try multiple ways of goading the enemy, but the first should be returning our own banter to see if it strikes a fuse in the enemy. With any luck, they'll send some vessels to Polis Massa if we leave the signal there tracable."

"Very well, then it is decided. Admiral Motti, find the Grand Admiral some Vulture droids and have them delivered to the Admonitor to be modified. Colonel Yularen, get a number of those special probe droids sent there as well." Tarkin said as he stood, "This meeting is now over, return to your stations and tasks."

"Grand Moff, I trust you will have this battlestation ready when we uncover intel on Hypori?" Thrawn asked as he stood.

"Immediately. The Emperor has granted us permission to use this station and our full arsenal should we deem it neccessary."

"Very good. In the meantime, I shall be aboard the Admonitor gathering ships to lay the trap at Polis Massa should you need me." Thrawn informed him before stepping out of the conference room himself.

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Eggman smirked as he heard the reports from Snively. All of them reported no negative effects on his current campaign to build up his strength before unleashing what he named 'Overturn'. He listened as Snively finished the reports. He was about to reveal a surprising fact about his campaign to his commanders who were gathered with him in the Death Egg's war room.

"-seventeen billion troops in the field as of yet and many, many more on the way in production. A large portion of the unfinished robots are expected to be complete in the course of the next few days."

"Good Snively. Now that its out of the way, we can get onto discussing the next, and final phase of our build up plan before we launch Operation Overturn." The Doctor nodded. Snively sat back into his chair.

"Doctor, are you sure attempting to conquer more worlds for production is such a good idea? We'd only bring more attention and publicity to ourselves. We have many as it is filling large orders." Orbot voiced his worry.

"Oh don't worry my lackluster comrades. Our final phase doesn't involve nabbing some more lowly worlds that nobody would notice getting taken over, or some worlds important to a degree that we'd have to defend against counter-invasions. No, this time, we're going to take the government of this galaxy completely by surprise with our next move. By striking at their very heart and sweeping it out from underneath the Empire's feet, we will severely weaken them into being disorganized and unable to make responses to attacks we will launch after." Eggman said with a grin as he looked over the holographic map of the galaxy before him.

"When we neutralize their leadership, or at the very least, most of it and take their most important worlds, we will destabilize the Galactic Empire. As we all know from the information we've gathered up from our time being here, this Empire suffers widespread rebellion across the galaxy that they will try to suppress and deal with using their military, which will be in disarray. If we can succeed in the next stunt I plan to pull, we will give the people of this galaxy unhappy with the Empire's rule a chance to rise up and rebel, causing them even more discord." Eggman said as he held his hands together in the manner a master of scheming would.

"And we will gain their support! We will make ourselves out to be saviors coming to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. And when the Empire is gone, we will take it's place and squash any resistance this galaxy offers us with our unstoppable legions! And from there, we can add the finishing touches on our glorious Eggman Empire!" Eggman declared in glee. The doctor stopped as he looked at the galaxy. His grin turned into a frown as he looked. He rubbed his chin for a moment, contemplating, before waving his arm in a motion to express disagreement before his grin returned.

"No. It's not an appropriate name for what I plan to form. From the ashes of the war I will wage to get this galaxy in my iron grip, a new, glorious Galactic Eggman Empire will rise! Ho ho ho ho ho ho!"

The doctor's underlings simply clapped in applause. 'He sure can make a speech' Cubot whispered to Orbot as he nudged at him with his elbow.

"Uhmm...sir, what do you mean by 'striking at their very heart'? Do you mean we are going to mount an assault on the core worlds of this galaxy next?" Snively asked with his finger raised.

"Where else would classify as the very heart of a galaxy spanning empire other than their most important worlds and capital? Of course the core worlds are our next target. We will render them helpless by conquering Imperial Center with a surprise invasion before we fortify it as a position and work on spreading out from there!" Eggman exclaimed.

"I see sir. I assume you are taking your most important creations for this one?" Snively laid back in his chair a little.

"A fleet of thousands of ships, and an army of my machines billions strong! They won't know what will have hit them! Just imagine the looks they'll get on their faces when they see our fleet appear in orbit and start teleporting down our troops by the millions!" Eggman chuckled while imagining it.

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Lights flashed on an off on the consoles as the Egg Pawn and SWATbot crewmen manned their stations on the bridge of the Major class battleship 'Yolk'. Aboard the ship, Scratch and Grounder argued. Both shooting insults at each over, and all over something small and petty as always. As was right for the two robots who were now in command of the ship thanks to swindling their way out of working at the oil cantina. Turns out, the two are able to get nearly anything they desire, if they pester the doctor enough.

"No! Street Fighter is much better you oversized baking sheet!" Grounder retorted.

"Nuh unh! The King of Fighters is you scrapheap!" Scratch snapped back.

"The King of Fighters doesn't have anyone as awesome as Akuma, so hah!" Grounder laughed.

"And Street Fighter doesn't have anyone as best as Mai Shiranui, so bwah ahah ahah!" Scratch

"Sir, video games and or any form of entertainment is a direct violation o-"

"This don't involve you! Go back to slamming down your 'no fun' signs!" Both said to the SWATbot attempting to break up the fight.

The SWATbot stood there for a second giving them a stare of hatred before resuming it's crewman duties.

"Frequency detected." One of the Egg pawns suddenly alerted.

Scratch and Grounder looked at the beeping light on the console and the Egg Pawn for a moment before glancing at each other.

"Well, who's it from?" The chicken based robot crossed it's wings.

"Unknown. Signal is being broadcast in our direction from the Polis Massa system. Directive?"

"Open it up, see what it's about." Grounder said.

"Affirmative."

The Egg Pawns fingers rapidly pressed buttons on it's console as it turned a volume dial on. Out of the speakers, static played. Scratch and Grounder listened for the moment, but soon grew tired of listening to nothing but static and ordered the Pawn to stop playing the signal until, the static died down and some semblance of a voice was beginning to be heard.

'E......ne.......'

"Whassit sayin'? Turn it up some!" Grounder barked. The Egg Pawn fiddled with the volume dial once more until the stern voice coming over the signal could be heard.

"Enemies of- he Empire beware- ... ou are only on a path to your downfall- ...f you truly believe yourselves to be a match for the Empire, the-n ...- come to Polis Massa and prove your mettle."

"Is that supposed to be a challenge or somethin'?" Grounder scratched his head with his drill hand.

"Well if it is, I say we take our ships, go there to the North Pole or wherever they said, and teach them a lesson or two!" Scratch says, imitating the gesture of a tough person rolling up their sleeve.

"Yeah! They might not be a blue hedgehog, but I bet if we go there and give them the what-for, the doctor will be so pleased with out success, that he'll promote us!" Grounder remarked.

"Yeah! And then we'll finally prove we're so much more useful than that banana brain janitor Coconuts! Bwaha-ahaha!" Scratch said.

"Hey you, robot, take us to this North Pole system." Grounder ordered.

"Leaving the Hypori system would be a direct violation of Doctor Robotnik's-"

"What are you on about? We're two of Robotnik's more important robots, and he put us in charge of this ship, you gotta follow our orders! Now take us to the North Pole! We got to impress Doctor Robotnik!" Scratch snapped, flapping his arms.

The Egg Pawn stared. It's processors couldn't decide whether or not to call the local Eggrobo commander and report the two for what they wanted to attempt, which was a violation of orders, or go along as they were correct in the fact that they had been placed in command of the ship.

The Egg Pawn continued to stare, and it did so much so that Scratch and Grounder became uncomfortable, and even disturbed by it's stare. The Pawn looked as such that one would think by looking into it's eyes that it had experienced decades of a devastating war on the theatre of a world and was currently experiencing flashbacks to those decades of terrifying wartime.

The Pawn finally snapped out of it's trance and replied simply with a salute before keying into the console the location of the Polis Massa system and preparing the Major battleship for the jump to hyperspace. Beside the battleship that Scratch and Grounder were on board of, 'Yolk', flew it's two Minor cruiser escorts that were dubbed with names that were a play on Eggs as well. The 'Albumen' and the 'Vitellus'.

"Here we go! Let's go teach em' a lesson! Bwaha!" Scratch said, sitting in the command chair.

"Yeah! Let's show those chumps what happens when you mess with the Eggman Empire!" Grounder said, rolling up next to the chair Scratch sat in.

The field of view was consumed with the blue tunnel of Hyperspace as their three ships made the jump to travel to Polis Massa. Unknowingly to them, a trap waited, just for them to spring.


	7. The Central Bounty

"HEY, SCRATCH..." Grounder said loudly for Scratch to hear him clearly.

"...WHAT?!" Scratch said, trying to keep still in the command chair as their ship shook violently from the fire it was sustaining.

"COME TO THINK O-OEHG-F...OF IT...MAYBE COMING TO THIS PLACE WAS A BAD IDEA!" Grounder said in distress.

The Egg Pawn and SWATbots crewing the bridge now thought much less of Scratch and Grounder, the ones responsible for getting them into this situation in the first place. The fools had been coerced by the challenge the Imperials issued them via comlink signal and traveled to Polis Massa to, in Scratch's words, "teach em' a lesson". However, what awaited them was a trap well planned out by the Chiss tactician of the Galactic Empire, Mitth'raw'nuruodo. Funny, how Thrawn's intelligence greatly contrasted the ignorance of the two.

"T-TURN US AROUND AND G-GET US OUTTA HERE!" Scratch bawked in terror. When they had arrived, the Admonitor was waiting for their three vessels alone. At least, that was what they had believed awaited them, as there had been over a dozen Victory Star Destroyers hiding behind the asteroids of the Polis Massa system, which made their sudden appearance at the signal of the Chiss Grand Admiral.

In the ensuing trap the robot lackeys had fallen for, their two escorting cruisers were blown to rubble by the barrage unleashed from the Admonitor and it's Victory escorts. TIE Interceptors swarmed in and overwhelmed the Egg Fighters with their numerical superiority before targeting the engines of the Major class battleship Scratch and Grounder were assigned to. The engines weren't destroyed, but damaged in order to slow the Egg ship down.

"Admiral, the modified Vulture droids are loaded and ready to deploy." Voss Parck, Thrawn's first officer informed him.

"Very good. Deploy the squadron and make sure those ISB droids can get onto the ship." Thrawn said firmly, his arms crossed behind his back as he looked out at the battleship from the bridge of his Imperial-I class, Admonitor.

Slowly, the red Imperial Star Destroyer sized battleship turned to position itself for the jump to hyperspace in retreat back to Hypori. Thrawn's plan had went swimmingly as the Admonitor deployed it's squadron of modified Vulture droids carrying ISB spy droids.

Fortunately, the Vulture droids had managed to reach the Egg ship in time, and four of the eight ISB spy droids were launched, and connected. The magnetic devices on the spy droids allowed them to latch onto the hull as four rods extended and drilled small holes into the hull to secure the spy droid, which kept a low profile.

Unfortunately, the Major class battleship had managed to hit the bridge of a Victory it had concentrated on briefly with a Concussion Missile, a lucky hit. The Victory became disabled as a result, and three of the Vulture droids were shot down by straggler Egg Fighters, but no serious loss was made for the Imperials.

The Major class battleship jumped to hyperspace as the last of it's fighters returned to it's hangar. Now that Thrawn's plan had succeeded, he would wait and see what intelligence was waiting to be uncovered when the enemy ship returned to Hypori.

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"WE'RE SORRY!" Scratch and Grounder pleaded, looking up in terror at the doctor who sat behind his desk, almost shaking in anger, furious with what the morons had just admitted to.

"You IDIOTS!" Eggman shouted, "You fools have just cost me three of my navies ships in your idiotic choice to travel to a very distant system to, in your words, 'teach them a lesson'. You simpletons! That system is, to our knowledge, mostly asteroids! Was it impossible to do a background check, or take a minute of your time to use your processor to figure out that the message in the signal practically spelled out the word 'trap' for you!? ARGH!" Eggman fumed, nearly crushing the drinking glass he held.

"We.... we'll make it up to you boss, we can do anythin' you'd like!" Grounder said, trying to make his tone sound optimistic.

"Y-yeah! We'll listen better from now on! A-and we could go raid an enemy base or somethin' for you!" Scratch backed him up.

Eggman gritted his teeth as he pinched his temple before glaring at the two again. He inhaled deeply and exhaled, calming himself and regaining his composure as he set down the glass, which was now cracked.

"I've got a better idea," He began as he adjusted his goggles, "You could take a break instead."

"....A break? You mean as in.... no working?" Scratch said with curiosity at the sudden seemingly generous offer. He and Grounder passed a glance at each other. Grounder shrugged.

"Sure," Eggman said, smiling all of a sudden as his finger pressed a button on his desk, "Take a break in the incinerator for a while!" Eggman hollered.

Scratch and Grounder could only yelp in terror as the floor beneath them opened up, the pair falling into some sort of room of fire while they flailed during the fall, the floor closing right after. The doctor groaned as he stood and walked to insert his glass into a machine in the room, which filled the glass with a kind of alcoholic beverage that the doctor downed in one swig. He looked out of the large window behind his desk which overlooked the massive city of Eggmanland below. He admired his marvelous dream city beneath and around him from his tower.

He began to think then, going over what Scratch and Grounder had told him now that he was calmed down somewhat. Firstly, they picked up the same signal being broadcasted to the system from Polis Massa. Pretty much every other thing in the Hypori system had picked this signal up as well, and dismissed it as goading. The two fools didn't, and made off to fall into the trap with three ships.

Secondly, they were attacked by a capital ship and a dozen or so cruisers, which destroyed their escorts and damaged their battleship's engines. The one thing their crew reported while the morons were busy barking orders to retreat was that a lone squadron of fighters of a unique, never before seen kind, were spotted flying towards their ship. Yet, they didn't come in for an attack run, but definitely shot something at their battleship. The point defenses made short work of a quadruplet of the fighters, yet the remaining four escaped.

Thirdly, there must have been a point to the trap. It couldn't have in any way been a random trap set up to just attack and destroy some targets for no reason other than attacking. If the lone squadron of fighters did launch something, then it must have been a trap planned in order to get eyes into the system, as there is no way for probe droids to spy there.

That surely was it, the doctor thought.

His thoughts were interrupted by a blue Eggrobo commander entering the office with a strange object in it's hand. The object looked like a landmine with four rods protruding off of it's bottom side, four camera lenses, and an antenna sticking out of it's top.

'Ahh.... What have we here?" Ivo questioned as the Eggrobo presented it to him on his desk.

"Sir, we believe this object to be an Imperial spy droid, planted onto the ship possibly by the lone squadron that was seen." The Eggrobo said, only confirming his suspicion that it was an elaborate attempt at getting eyes into the Hypori system to spy. An attempt that succeeded.

"Was this the only one?"

"No sir. Three more were found on the EF Yolk, but disappeared when workers tried to locate them again. We believe the droids may possess a way to maneuver and relocate, and have left to somewhere else." The Eggrobo reported.

"I see." The doctor stated, twirling his mustache, "Then alert all hands in the fleet stationed here. Make it our new primary objective to locate and seize those droids. We have to ensure they cannot get a lot of intel before we find them."

"Yes sir." The Eggrobo saluted him before leaving.

"Well well well. You want to play this game, hmm?" Eggman says to nobody as he examined the spy droid, looking over the ISB logo on it. "Well, then if that's how it is, I'll make sure to make every moment of it unpleasant. Heh heh heh..." Eggman said as he pressed a button on the intercom pad on the wall.

"Orbot, I have new fleet directions for you." He said.

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The conference room was silent as the Joint Chiefs, Oversector Governor Tarkin and the newly appointed Grand Admiral, Thrawn sat quietly, observing the footage that was sent back from the ISB spy droids Thrawn had managed to plant. Unlike other probe droids, the starfighter spy droid could not relay back live footage, a fault in it due to being an older design, however, it was able to send back recorded footage with a maximum length of an hour of runtime. The Joint Chiefs had spent most of their time watching the footage of the Eggship the droid was planted on traveling through Hyperspace and then exited out near a station and some other ships.

There was one thing that had the senior officers taken back, and that was how lowly and meagerly defended the Hypori system appeared. There was few space stations, some orbiting the planet, some built into the asteroids, and a small plethora of defense platforms armed with turbolaser banks.

There was also a good, yet minimal amount of fleet activity. Dozens of Egg ships were seen, Major battleships accompanied by Minor cruisers flying back and forth between the stations. The main hub of activity was a single, large station that appeared to be like a larger station connected to multiple asteroid bases by a lane. There were many of these long lanes connecting asteroids. The architectural ramifications of these impressed the Imperials, as it was something that, to their knowledge, had never tried before by the Imperials. Yet, the purpose of these lanes eluded them.

Thrawn studied the architecture, closely paying attention to the designs of the ships and stations they saw. As always, he was abiding by his code of understanding the art of another to better understand them. Although the designs of ships and space stations technically did not fall under the category of art, he considered them as art, as a ship could be both a beautiful and deadly thing in his book. The streamlined designs of the ships interested him, and he wanted to know more, but that would have to come at a later date.

"So that's it?", Admiral Motti spoke up, breaking the silence and gaining everyone's attention, "Some stations and one small fleet? We could clear the system out with a task force of Star Destroyers alone and cleanse their surface installations with orbital bombardment easily."

"Do not be so hasty, Admiral. Appearances can be deceiving, and there may be a reason behind such small fleet concentration." Thrawn silenced him, motioning back to the four large screens on the wall projecting the footage.

That was when the footage panned to show another object slowly appearing on one of the screens. A large spheroid as white as a moon.

"Is that.... Hypori's moon? It looks.... awfully...." Yularen nearly questioned, stopping as yellow and blue lights come into view on the screens.

Tarkin stared intensely, as if there was another Death Star coming up as the footage picked up by one of the ISB spy droids swerved to show the monstrously huge new object, which they could tell was no moon at all.

"What in the name of the Emperor is that thing?!" Cassio Tagge said, expressing his shock at seeing a battlestation that nearly resembled the Death Star in appearance. An enemy battlestation that looked to be around similar size to add to the value of the shock shared by all of the members in the room.

"You wouldn't tell me that the enemy possesses an orbital station much like we do, surely you wouldn't?" Tarkin said to Thrawn, leaning forward in his high chair to get a better look at the footage. The Grand Admiral uncrossed his arms as he stood, taking steps toward the screens.

"It would seem our eyes deceive what we would like to have believed, Grand Moff. However, we can only cling onto the hope that we aren't exaggerating the size of that battlestation. From what I can deduce at first glance, it would appear to be nearly the same size of the Death Star. However if I were to try and determine the exact size mathematically measuring kilometers using the individual pixels on this screen....." Thrawn inquired, pausing the footage with a remote he had. His finger brushed over the screen, motioning at the asteroids, the Egg ships and the battlestation.

"From what I could tell at Polis Massa, the enemies' larger ships are comparable to an Imperial Star Destroyer in length. If I were to go by that and try hand measuring the distance of the other stations... Well... The most accurate estimate I can make is that the battlestation here on screen is roughly.... larger than the Death Star." Thrawn said, his tone unchanging.

"That is absolutely preposterous!" Tarkin exclaimed, refusing to believe his accomplishment, the Death Star, a result of his doctrine, is overshadowed in size by a station built by an opposing third party that were only discovered so recently.

"I'm afraid not, Grand Moff. If my estimate is accurate, destroying that station is our most important goal now, especially given that it's abilities or purpose remains a mystery." Thrawn remarked.

"However, one thing does tell a lot. That battlestation is considered important enough by the enemy that they have a fleet stationed in the same system with it, complete with defense platforms as well. That fleet is larger than the one we have here protecting the Death Star. If they could be taken by surprise from an angle..." Thrawn said, thinking.

"Even the Death Star, as powerful as it is, could be threatened by a fleet, if that fleet is the right size and well coordinated. If I recall, the Rebellion once attempted to destroy the Death Star before it's completion with but a single post-Clone Wars Lucrehulk-class battleship. It was a direct threat to the Death Star because of it's fighter complement, and it had bypassed Motti's fleet in sector seven of the defense grid. It was too much of a threat that the use of the superlaser was ordered in order to destroy it so that the fighters could be picked off. Do you recall this, Grand Moff Tarkin?" Thrawn said.

"Yes, quite well." Tarkin said.

"If we apply the same principles of logic, then it dictates that a fleet of considerable size, well coordinated by our combined efforts and intellect, could potentially threaten, or even destroy this enemy battlestation. With our own superlaser equipped battlestation on hand, this should be definite." Thrawn stated.

"I would agree, Admiral, but you mention something about angle. Would you explain your meaning behind it?" Tarkin asked, now sitting up in better posture.

"Yes. If we are to assume that battlestation possesses a means to destroy an entire planet much like the Death Star, then taking it by surprise at a certain angle is the only right choice that can be taken in this situation. Whatever we send to destroy must be out of range of whatever means of mass destruction it possesses, or else such an operation would only end in failure." Thrawn says, walking over and sitting back down into his chair, "I would suggest moving to Hypori from the planet Ryloth, which we would reach via the Corellian run hyperlane."

"I see. Is there any objection to what Thrawn has conceived?" Tarkin said as he looked around the room. Yularen and Tagge simply shook their heads. Motti did the same after a moment.

"Very well. Then it is once again Thrawn's directive we shall follow for this campaign. Let us all put an end to this war and continue maintaining order and peace. This meeting is adjourned." Tarkin said as he stood.

The officers disembarked from the room to resume their duties whilst preparing for the assault that Thrawn had came up with.

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Much later that evening.  
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The starkly decisive Grand Admiral had resigned himself to his quarters on the Admonitor. The holographic projections floating around his chair glowed bright yellow, displaying an illustration of the Major class battleship that was created using all recorded material of the ship to date the Imperials have gathered in their time fighting against the Eggman Empire, which they had yet to know the name of. To the Imperials, Eggman's directorate was simply known as 'enemy', or 'menace'.

He examined the schematics closely, looking over what had been labeled as parts of the ship. Though, the parts of the ship that were labeled were only labeled due to belief. They really didn't know which part was which or what exactly the pieces on it's hull were, they could only guess. Obviously, the high tower on the top of the ship's hull was where they guessed the bridge was located at. That guess was likely a good one though.

But the three wing-like appendages on the top of the hull that seemed to be connected to a rotating mechanism was strange, even to the Chiss, who failed to understand the point in why anyone would build rudders that moved onto the top of a starship. Given the fact that it was capable of space travel, propelling at sublight speeds with it's engines, and achieving speeds faster than light thanks to Hyperspace, he couldn't see why there were rudders that could move back on forth on the top of the ship. The ship doubling as an airship as well as starship seemed to be a dimwitted concept to him, as practically any ship could double as an airship and not require such unnecessary features. But he digressed and passed it off as something put there simply for design purposes, as if to make the ship appear more attractive, it almost reminded him of how a lot of Mon Calamari ships sported wings. He left it at that and accepted it that way.

"Sir, the bounty hunter Lord Vader recommended you has arrived here at last." A junior officer who entered the private quarter said to the Chiss, who switched off the hologram projector and turned in his chair to see a figure clad in dark green armor enter the room.

"Ah, you must be the Mandalorian bounty hunter known as Boba Fett. Your record says great things about you, Fett, I can see why Vader recommended you." Thrawn said as he stood.

"It brings in more credits whenever Vader recommends another customer to me. As long as the price is right, I'll carry out any job you have." Boba stated in his disciplined tone as he crossed his arms.

"Indeed." Thrawn started, pleased that the hunter had arrived so quickly after he sent out the request to him, "And plenty of credits you shall receive if you can complete this task I wish for you to carry out. I can tell by looking at you that you are the type of man who likes to get to the point. Shall we negotiate?"

"What did you have on your mind?" Boba asked.

"Three hundred thousand up front, the rest of it, six hundred, you get after getting this errand done." Thrawn answered him.

"Acceptable... Now, what 'errand' are we talking here? You want someone dead? Do you want someone alive?"

"Alive, Fett." Thrawn said as he grabbed a datapad from a nearby desk and placed it into the hands of the bounty hunter, who took it and looked over it's contents.

"Intelligence reported that the current enemy of the Empire is gathering forces in the Mytaranor sector, close to Trandosha and Kashyyyk, possibly to use as a staging grounds for launching attacks on the Core Worlds. One is currently under attack as we speak. Corulag." Thrawn explains, "We received the reports right before an operation I carried out that allowed us to spy on our enemies' home system of Hypori. As of yet, the naval force the enemy came with is locked in a bloody stalemate with the naval defense flotillas that were dispatched to hold them back. The ground is facing the worst. The enemies are relentlessly laying siege to the capital city of Corulag, Curamelle. If they get that city, the planet is theirs. The Empire's hands are tied up defending Corulag and trying to break the siege."

"And I come in where?" Boba questioned.

"Hm. As I said, the type of man who likes to get to the point. Well, we were lucky enough to intercept some enemy signals and discover the presence of a high ranking commander in the enemy faction at Corulag. One of their central commanders. We want you to capture and deliver them back here, to the Death Star for interrogation. With one of their central leadership figures captured, we will deal them a blow that might allow the Empire to push them back to the Outer Rim and out of the Core Worlds and Mid Rim, then possibly allow us further progress in winning this war. Do you understand?"

"Sure." Fett said, "Consider them your prisoner already. Expect me to return with them in chains soon enough." The bounty hunter turned to leave right before he was stopped by Thrawn's hand grabbing his shoulder.

"One more thing", Thrawn said as he held up a container by the handle, "Electromagnetic pulse grenades, or 'droid poppers' as all you clones of Jango Fett refer to them as. The legionnaires of the enemies' armies are completely battle droid based. You will need these."

Fett said nothing as he took the container and nodded, surprised the Chiss had done enough research, possibly through Imperial military archives, to know about his origin. With that, the bounty hunter left to return to Slave I and carry out his next job. The Grand Admiral resigned himself back to his chair and continued his learning of the enemy using what was known already.


	8. The Battle for Corulag

The City of Curamelle, capital of the planet Corulag  
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"Hold the line! Do not falter!" One of the officers wearing field armor over their uniform shouted out across the street. The Stormtroopers beneath him were all exhausted. They had been fighting valiantly for hours to keep the massive line they formed intact. In one of the very many dense metropolises that dotted Corulag's surface and formed the near-planet wide city that almost fell under the classification of an ecumenopolis, they were fighting to keep the most important one, the planet's capital, Curamelle, under Imperial control. The city was under threat of being overrun and taken by the Egg Army.

In the sky above the city, Acclamator II assault ships that hadn't been decommissioned yet went back and forth with Minor class cruisers, the ships in the sky slugging each other with turbolaser bolts. One of the few Procursator-class Star Destroyers that were available for the battle, fell from the sky, being struck down by the shots fired from a Major class Battleship that had just entered the atmosphere and came closer to the surface.

The Imperials had faced over three thousand casualties over the course of this siege. The casualties the Egg Army were dealt wasn't known yet, but would be after the battle was over and won by the Imperials. If it was won by the Imperials that is.

The city of Curamelle had been split between the presence of the warring factions. The city was divided into ten districts already, the Imperials had six, the Egg Army had four, but they were pushing hard enough that two of the districts were about to fall. The Corulag Imperial Academy was where the defense of the city was being directed from. The Universities and advanced research facilities were also under Imperial control.

The battle had yet to take a turning point, as the Imperials had blocked off mostly all of the cities' entrances. There were so very few tunnels, back alleys, underground passages and minor streets the Egg Army could use now to cross into the Imperial side of the city to fight, and each and every single one of the tunnels, back alleys, passages and minor streets were heavily fortified by Imperial troops and emplacements. The Imperials were unconcerned about defending these, as any troops lost defending them would be almost immediately replaced by more, and with medics on standby, injuries were cared for quickly so the soldiers who were injured could return to battle.

The only real way the Egg Army had now that would allow them to cross deeper into the other districts was a gigantic main highway on the ground that could be seen miles high in the sky. This main highway was the largest on Corulag and the busiest, or at least, it was before the battle.

The highway, being over four hundred and sixty two meters wide, allowed for massive portions of the army to collide. From the buildings held on the Imperial side, many snipers and marksmen held positions, firing from far off while officers in the buildings operated communications to direct the troops.

On the actual highway itself, several hundred Imperial soldiers, mixed between Army Troopers and Stormtroopers, defended the highway behind a deployed shield generator, sandbags, durasteel barricades and the rubble of dozens upon dozens of destroyed vehicles, both civilian vehicles destroyed in the crossfire and initial beginning of the siege and military vehicle that went down in combat.

Speeders piloted by Scout Troopers and AT-ST's made their way to the front to join the effort to hold the line. Repulsorlift tanks that were deployed also helped make up the bulwark of their vehicular strength.

There was thirty some positions where E-Web teams had deployed their mounted heavy blaster cannons, which they fired into the crowds of SWATbots and Egg Pawns that constantly advanced onto them with.

Ten or so AT-AT walkers were present. Three were near the front of the line, using the buildings near the junctions for cover while one stood out in the full view of everyone in the middle and thick of the battle. Two were inside the bubble of the shield generator, at the ready should their line be pushed back farther. The last five were farther back, way behind the shield generator, on the main highway, which was a straight shot towards the Corulag Imperial Academy.

Up and above them all, TIE fighters soared through the air, screaming as their wing's sliced through the air. The Egg Fighters that engaged them were far less in number, yet far superior in efficiency and engineering. Though, despite their advantage provided by their advanced technology, even they were struggling hard against the clouds of fighters. And that wasn't even mentioning the TIE bombers that came overhead the main highway to drop their payloads onto the dark legions of the good doctor.

Beyond the line, the Egg Army had crushed all that were in their path previously. To the Imperial forces that were previously defending the districts the Egg Army had taken, what was done to them was akin to a human toddler being shaken by an angry wookie. The line was the only thing that they struggled to get over. The SWATbots excelled at flooding and clearing areas. The Egg Pawns and Fighters acted as the heavier infantry, being the main bulk of the forces that fought ever onward at the line. Their thermal energy weapons burned through their targets as the chainswords and fists of the Fighters easily dispatched any target in close range.

Then there was the Egg Gunners and Buzzers that provided fire support from higher grounds. They rained blaster bolts and rockets down on some of the Imperial positions.

Though, there was a factor that inhibited both sides from gaining more casualties in the battle while the line was the main point. The amount of debris and smoke that filled and polluted the air made it much more difficult to properly aim or hit a target. The blaster bolts flew wildly, but only so very few actually hit a target.

In fact, that was the only reason the AT-ATs out of cover had not been destroyed by artillery. The smoke made it impossible to coordinate and launch successful hits, and launching the artillery wildly would only cause much greater damage to the city. The very foundation underneath a very wide section of the main highway threatened to collapse from the battle in progress above ground. The underground canals and passages underneath that section were noticeably larger than others, yet led almost the same way as all the others did, and because of their bigger interiors, they sported less support for the main highway up above.

The Egg Army had the primary objective of crushing the Imperials, but could not risk destroying the main highway, for it was the only way to give their spearhead a straight pathway to the Academy where the Imperial General overseeing the battle resided. Capturing or slaying the general was their goal, as it would mean that the ground was lost for the Empire, and Corulag would belong to the Eggman Empire then.

The battle raged on, smoke pillars rose from the city and fire was spread out widely. The Imperials hammered at the Egg Army that advanced to their line, and the Egg Army pushed ever onward despite the losses they would receive in the debris and the field of view that was partially blinded.

But the Imperials held out with the reassurance that the battle would be theirs soon. At the very behest of both Grand Moff Tarkin and the Emperor, the Sith lord, Darth Vader, was en route to Corulag, and with him, he carried his fist. The 501st legion, along with their former flagship, the Devastator.

The battle would only intensify now, intensify like the forward firepower of a Star Destroyer...

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"Sir, we are approaching optimum range. Your orders?"

"Have the Devastator provide support to the defense flotillas. Alert the five hundred and first that we land soon." The Sith lord said, turning to leave the bridge as the captain proceeded to do as he ordered.

Vader boarded his personal shuttle, intending to break the siege quickly before the enemy could get through the line on the surface.

The Imperial-I class Devastator that once acted as his flagship, before the Executor took it's place, moved in, coming in behind the Victory and Procursator Star Destroyers that were engaging the swarm of Minor class cruisers. The Devastator came in launching a hail of heavy turbolaser and Ion cannon fire, aiming at the Major class battleships of the Egg Fleet that were there. It combined it's efforts to win the space battle in conjunction with the efforts of the other Imperial class Star Destroyers that were present.

The Imperials, for once, actually had the advantage in space thanks to the presence of four Venators that hadn't been decommissioned yet. While their shields were roughly equivalent to that of a Victory Destroyer, the advantage they gave was solely because of their built in SPHA-T beam cannons, which worked to severely damage the Minor cruisers and to deal decent damage to the Major battleships that were hit with the beam. Yet their advantage was at risk of being taken away as wings of Egg Fighters encroached in to commence bombing runs on the capital ships.

TIE Hunters and Phantoms, although uncommon, were deployed and ordered to ignore the dogfighting that went on outward in the field of the battle and to focus on defending the capital ships from attacking fighters, as the Egg Fighters could be utilized as both a fighter and a bomber, it was a multi-role vehicle after all.

The space battle would go on for a longer while, but the ground battle would take a turning point soon, as the 501st were descending to the surface with their commander, Darth Vader.

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"We've lost a position, take it back!" The voice of an Imperial lieutenant came over the comlinks of every Army and Stormtrooper holding down the main highway. Immediately, a platoon of the various troopers made their made through the smog and the debris, marching over the rubble and through the destruction as they went to retake the position. They moved both quickly and warily. Flanking them were two TIE Maulers and a Saber class repulsor tank that had it's missile launcher tubes prepped and ready to fire. The laser cannons were hot and the thumbs of their gunners were on the triggers.

Then, coming into their view despite the heavy smog and debris, were the SWATbots and Egg Pawns that had taken the position and killed the troopers that previously held it.

"Blast 'em!" One of the Stormtroopers said right before firing the first shot.

The robots reacted quickly, the Egg Pawns fired back with their own blasters and the SWATbots rapidly fired their wrist mounted beam guns. The fire the TIE Maulers sprayed helped to down the SWATbots as the Saber tank blew the Egg Pawns away with it's missiles and lasers.

The one thing that they never expected was Motobugs suddenly driving in and ramming into their vehicles and exploding in some sort of kamikaze attack on them. The troopers made for cover, climbing up on the destroyed civilian vehicles and rubble as the Motobugs disabled their Saber tank and managed to destroy one of the TIE Maulers. Just as the last of the small, red, speedy robots sacrificed themselves in battle, the other TIE Mauler gunned down the last of the SWATbots right before the pilot was shot through his viewing glass by one of the Egg Pawns, which was taken out by the gunner of the Saber tank's turret.

But to the dismay of the troopers trying to retake the position, another dozen or so of SWATbots appeared through the smog. The formidable infantry machines were much like the B1 Battle Droid used by the late Confederacy of Independent Systems in that they were mass produced similarly, yet different in that unlike the B1, they didn't require massive numbers to be combat effective.

And just as the Stormtroopers and SWATbots prepared to fire at each other back and forth again, two metallic spheres landed at the feet of the Egg Army footmen, exploding violently and sending the parts of the robots through the air, scattering them.

The troopers breathed a sigh of relief as they turned to witness their saviors marching in; The 501st legion, Vader's Fist.

The captain of the Stormtroopers brushed the dust off his orange pauldron before stepping up in attention to the Sith lord himself who marched through the fog. Behind him was a mass of Stormtroopers who wore armor that was painted with blue paint to distinguish them from others. Their spaulders, helmet, torso plate and bracers had the blue paint streaked down them in the special pattern that was unique to the 501st.

"We weren't expecting special forces, and certainly weren't expecting you, Lord Vader. What brings you to the battlefront?"

"I am here to end this charade and push the enemy back, captain. You and your men will stay here and defend this position. Make sure it is not lost again." Vader said, striding past him.

"Yes Lord Vader. Be cautious, our snipers reported sighting some massive war machine, big as an AT-AT they said, rampaging around unimpeded." The captain said before ordering his own troopers into place to fortify the position.

The Sith exited heavy smog then, having made it past the positions that were eliminated earlier. Ahead, there were many, many SWATbots and nearly as many Egg Pawns and Fighters ahead, constantly advancing towards the Imperial defense line. From that point, the build up of destroyed robots at the line would stop, and instead would be replaced with roads of destroyed robots, for now, Vader walked among them.

And with a ominous whoosh and press of a button, the red blade of Vader's saber sprung out, the lightsaber ignited. It's red hue reflected on the black armor of the Emperor's apprentice.

Coming out from behind the smog with him was the ten thousand men of the 501st. Since the end of the Galactic Republic and the beginning of the Empire, the strength of legions were raised from nine thousand two hundred and sixteen men to ten thousand. Each and every trooper of the legion were heavily armed, carrying among themselves E-11 blaster rifles, DLT-19 heavy blaster rifles, T-21 light repeaters, DLT-20A rifles and PLX-2M launchers.

The hardened veterans of the legion stood in the front, their pauldrons of many different colors glistening, they carried only the best of weapons the Empire could provide. The newer members followed closely behind, yet they weren't restricted to more standard issue weapons and were just as armed as the veterans. The only key difference between the veterans and the newer members being their gap in skill.

As the 501st and the Egg Army saw each other, there was a pause briefly before the storm of projectiles that followed. Blaster bolts, laser beams and thermal blasts flew past each other. Some of the veterans sustained injuries, a couple or so of the newer members died here and there. But the Egg Army fell en masse, drowned in gunfire.

Swinging his saber around in an elegant, precise and lethal way, Vader's lightsaber cut clean through the chainswords and shields of the Egg Fighters that engaged him. The purple painted machines were utterly outmatched, and were utterly halved as the Darth left them in pieces.

The 501st fought on and on against the hundreds of Egg Army machines on the main highway in front of them.

"New orders soldiers. The line no longer needs to be defended. Push forward with the five'o'first legion and support Lord Vader with everything you've got. We're retaking the other districts of this city today!" The anxious voice of the Imperial general assigned to oversee the battle stated over the communication device he operated from the academy.

Complying with the orders from the top brass, the troops that held the line began to join the Legion in moving forward. The AT-ATs and AT-STs went along as well, so did the other miscellaneous tanks.

As Vader pushed deeper onto the main highway, his Legion began to spread out, taking more routes to cover more ground. They were hunting now, going through the buildings of the city around them to clear out the Egg Army stragglers that spread out, and though it was hard, they soldiered on.

While the Buzzers that flew around taking potshots were still an annoyance, they were only minor now. With the line no longer requiring defense and the Imperials moving out, it allowed for the Jumptroopers of the Empire to finally move out without fear of being killed by any random robot. Hopping from rooftop to rooftop and elevating around, the Jumptroopers were able to efficiently kill off the Buzzers. The robots struggled to hit even one as their weapons had low fire rates.

Now it was the Egg Army on the defensive with the Imperials moving on the offense. How quickly Vader was able to turn the tide of the battle was impressive with his reinforcements.

But up ahead, the Sith lord stopped for a moment after disposing of more Egg Fighters. There were loud crashes, almost like the sound of a building collapsing. There were only two hundred or so men following him now, as the ten thousand and more soldiers of the 501st and the Imperial Army had spread out wide and far to carry out extermination.

Then, a building nearly did collapse as a large part of one of tall structures ahead was bulldozed out of the way by a frighteningly massive machine painted black. The machine stomped onto the main highway and turned towards Vader and the Imperials. They ceased their advance as they stared, the machine stared back with it's single, glowing red optic. The large humanoid mech's arms ended with three large metal spikes that spun around on a rotary plate. It was bulky, very bulky and sturdy with very articulable arms. It was impressive in height as well, standing at nineteen meters high, one meter short of an AT-AT in height. It was a Death Egg Robot Sentinel.

A fiery stream of energy concentrated into a beam came from the eye then, hitting the crowd of soldiers behind Vader, completely vaporizing the poor unfortunate Stormtroopers caught in the beam, which traveled up, cutting a line in the crowd and killing more. The Imperials obviously didn't favor this, and returned fire with all they had, both with their blasters, rockets and detonators.

But the barrage failed to deal more than a scratch to the thick armor of the machine. Thankfully though, one AT-AT was there with them. It's heavy laser cannons fired at the torso of the similarly sized machine, which caused it to stumble briefly. But the shots did nothing more than leave behind large scorch marks and and burn a few measly inches of the armor away. Though they continued to fire at it, the Sentinel stomped towards them as the spikes of it's right arm spun.

Suddenly, the arm of the war machine extended as it shot forward and crashed into the group of soldiers, crunching and flattening them stone dead as it pulled the arm back and shot it's eye beam into the crown again, killing another drove of troopers.

With a wave of his hand, Vader took hold of the very foundation of the building the Sentinel had burst from and made it collapse completely, all the while directing it towards the machine. The plastoid walls fell down and onto the machine, knocking it off balance as the weight piled on top of it. Yet, the machine recovered even from that and dug itself out before standing again. Blue flames came from the pack built onto it's back as it was lifted off of the ground. The machine came over the crowd as it elevated closely to the AT-AT, which it landed next to and proceeded to thrust it's spikes into. The metal spikes pierced the hull of the head, crushing it and killing the pilots. The machine fired it's beam again, this time through the neck of the walker after it tore the head off. The interior of the AT-AT exploded as the walker tumbled to the side, destroyed.

"Continue onward! I will regroup with you after I deal with this droid!" Vader vociferated, pointing his finger in the direction of the Egg Army controlled districts. Without any words, the 501st Stormtroopers that accompanied him did so and went on their way.

The Sith lord gripped his lightsaber with both hands as the massive machine looked down and faced him. It's spikes spun even faster as the Sith lord raised his saber.

One of the greatest and most difficult battles Vader would ever have, would now take place...


	9. Conclusion at Corulag

Slowly, the cloned bounty hunter clad in the repainted armor of his father crept through a corridor of one of the demolished buildings of Curamelle. Having strayed far away from where he landed Slave I, he was cautious. He held his EE-3 in a tight grip as he turned a corner to see several SWATbots and a trio of Egg Pawns. He had already killed a number on his way through the city.

The robots were gathered around an object. It looked like four or so rectangular shaped electronics with two antennas pointing upwards from it. A pole with a satellite dish on the top slowly rotating around sent and received information and messages from other similar outposts. This listening post was one of many that were scattered around the Egg Army controlled districts of the city.

Without a noise, Boba quickly raised his carbine and fired at two of the Egg Pawns, hitting them in the head, destroying the robots as the SWATbots turned to fire back. One by one, the bounty hunter downed them all with bursts from his carbine before he trudged down the rubble of the building he was one, jumping down from one platform to the ground level. The remaining Egg Pawn, which wielded a lance, attempted to impale Fett with the weapon, but he retaliated by parrying the lance with a vibro blade that he then stabbed the Pawn in the frontal lobe with.

Looking over the interface, he saw that there was more than one main way they received and sent messages in, several to be exact, ranging from binary code to morse code and more. He began looking over the message history on the device, trying to pinpoint a lead that would allow him to get one step closer to getting to the central commander present at this battle.

His search was almost fruitless until he came across one that caught his eye. It was in phonetics.

Charlie Oscar Mike Mike Alpha November Delta Echo Romeo

Charlie Oscar Charlie Oscar November Uniform Tango Sierra

Hotel Alpha Sierra

Romeo Echo Lima Oscar Charlie Alpha Tango Echo Delta

Tango Oscar

Bravo Uniform November Kilo Echo Romeo

Foxtrot India Foxtrot Tango Yankee

Oscar November Echo

That was it, exactly the lead he needed.

The bounty hunter checked the map of Curamelle using the built in electronics on his helmet. Running a search over the Holonet, he found that there was indeed a location in Curamelle known as Bunker Fifty One. It was a government office building, apparently a customs office and truth ministry meant to brainwash the masses with propaganda. It was where the Egg Army were directing their forces from, and it was where the central commander Boba was after lied at.

The bounty hunter looked around as he went and entered another destroyed building, climbing the stairs to a higher level. Upon reaching the seventh level, he was high enough to look over and see large parts of the Ecumenopolis from above. Off to his north from where he looked, he could see the tall dark building that was Bunker Fifty One.

The Imperial logo and flags that were once on it were gone, having been blown off during the siege's beginning. Only the sign in galactic basic that read 'Bunker 51' remained. But in the place of the Galactic Empire's logo that was once on the building, there was now a massive black banner flown in it's place with a single red logo on it that depicted a round shaped head with a large mustache and grin. A weird symbol to represent themselves, Boba thought.

As the bounty hunter was about to jump from the opening in the wall of the building he looked out of to another rooftop, he heard a familiar sound he could place easily and looked down to the main highway below to see the one who normally contracted him, Darth Vader, currently in a struggle with some massive machine that was doing everything in it's power to kill the Sith lord.

The left "hand" of the machine was missing, having been carefully sliced off by Vader during their fight. Though, the machine had gained the upper hand after thrusting it's right arm's spikes to pin down the Sith, who was caught in between the spikes and rendered unable to move. His lightsaber had been knocked out of his hand and some feet away.

Just before the Death Egg Robot Sentinel could finish off the dark lord with it's eye beam attack, blaster bolts collided with the back of it's head, turning it's attention to the bounty hunter, who took aim and fired from his wrist a rocket projectile that traveled downward and hit the eye of the Sentinel, exploding inward and disabling it's only method of vision.

Throwing his hand forward after getting it free, Darth Vader managed to push the behemoth machine off of him with the Force, to which end he threw it off balance with the Force. Recalling the lightsaber with his right hand, the Sith lord hurled it at the destroyed optic of the machine, imbedding the saber's blade deep into the artificial brain of the war machine, disabling it's functions and effectively destroying it for good.

Safely, the bounty hunter lowered himself down to the ground level with his jetpack, landing near Vader, who retrieved his lightsaber from the head of the giant machine.

"Looked like you were in quite the struggle there, Vader. I suppose you'll be thanking that Thrawn person for sending me out this way, eh? Were it not for him, I wouldn't have been here to save your hide this time." Boba said with a hint of humor in his voice to the Sith lord who scoffed and simply began walking to rejoin the members of the 501st. The bounty hunter walked along as well.

"I could have handled that situation by myself, Fett." Vader said, unamused by Fett's jeer.

"As you say, your Sithiness." Boba said, holding his carbine to the air, "I believe I can offer you some intel that would prove paramount for you."

"And what would that be?" Vader looked at him.

"There's a building a bit of a ways up ahead, called Bunker Fifty One. It's where the enemy commander is at right now."

"Is that so? Then that is where I will head next. Your objective is to capture and bring their central commander to the Death Star, ours is to push the enemy out of the city. Let us work together to achieve these ends." Vader offered.

"See no reason in declining. Let's go then." Boba said as the two made their way down the main highway, taking a shortcut down a different split off route to regroup with the members of the 501st.

When the two came about, they found themselves going through a tunnel that lead out to an alley with multiple entrances, a rather big alley at that. Proceeding forward, they came out onto a back alley stairway that led up to another section of Curamelle's main highway. There were many Stormtroopers, both unassigned and 501st, sprinting down the highway, making their way to a plaza that lied up ahead, where Imperials and the soulless robots of the Egg Army were fighting viciously, going at each others neck's like rabid dogs.

"Lord Vader," One of the 501st Stormtrooper commanders stepped up to him and Boba Fett, "The plaza up ahead is heavily infested with hostiles. I'm directing our troops to clear it out in your absence. Should we press on with the attack or take a different approach sir?"

"Press with the attack commander. The building in the middle of that plaza just so happens to be where our enemies are directing the siege from. Destroy everything in our path to it." Vader said.

"Yes sir." The commander said before turning to join the other Stormtroopers and AT walkers moving into the plaza.

"While my troops keep the enemy preoccupied, you and I will enter the building to find that commander." Vader said as he drew his lightsaber.

"If that's how you wish to play it." Boba said as he grabbed one of the Ion grenades from his back.

It appeared to them that over two thousand or so of the enemies' robots occupied the massive plaza. Three defense towers had been deployed by dropships in the plaza that had a downsized version of the point defense laser that would be mounted on a starship on the top. Egg Shooters also stood on four platforms on each side of the towers. Their legs were replaced with stationary joints that allowed for a wide viewing area to fire blaster bolts in.

AT-ATs entering the platform from another side began firing down upon the crowds of SWATbots, Egg Pawns and Fighters that scattered to avoid the laser fire. The towers were shot down by the AT-ATs seconds later when three thousand assorted Imperial troopers poured into the plaza, overrunning the barricades the Egg Army set up and engaging the robots at varying ranges.

Boba Fett shot down Buzzers and Aero Chasers as Vader ignited his blade and deflected the beams SWATbots shot at him before he dived into the crowds of robots and began cutting them down like a Dantooinian farmer cuts down wheat with a sickle. Boba Fett followed suit, chucking the 'Droid Popper' into the middle of a crowd of the robots, which sent electromagnetic pulses through them, disabling them.

"So, what does your Emperor think of the ongoing conflict?" Boba asked nonchalantly as he burnt the exposed wiring of an Egg Pawn with his flamethrower.

"The Emperor is as displeased with this war as I am with you asking questions in the middle of combat." Vader answered him after smashing the head of an Egg Gunner in with his fist.

"Well, good. I'm not exactly the type to keep up with galactic news on the Holonet." Boba said before he stopped and looked over his shoulder at loud banging sounds that were heard across the plaza. Vader looked over too to see that there was two more of the Death Egg Robot Sentinels that had just been dropped into the plaza by a Minor class cruiser flying overhead. However, just before the Sentinels could begin rampaging through Imperial forces, TIE Fighters came from up high and started attack runs on the war machines. The green bolts of the fighters served to distract them and harm the heads of the machines as they attempted to shoot down the fighters with their eye beams to no avail.

The distraction allowed troopers carrying Plex launchers an opening to shoot their rockets at the lightly armored joints and neck of the Sentinels while the AT-ATs pounded them with heavy laser fire. The killing shot was made as a SPMA-T walker extended it's modular cannon and fired three artillery shots into the air, which came down upon one of the Sentinels, destroying it while the other activated it's jetpack and attempted to flee, only to be brought down by the TIE Fighters shooting it down in the air.

The morale of the Imperial troops was raised and the Stormtroopers were inspired to fight even harder and even more ferociously upon seeing the destruction of the giant war machines that had brought only destruction in their other encounters.

With a way cleared for them after prolonged fighting, Vader got Boba's attention with a hand gesture and the two quickly made for the way that gave them a straight shot towards Bunker 51. The entrance to the building was fortified with barricades by silver new generation Egg Pawn variants, who fired their thermal energy arm cannons at the approaching Sith lord, who dodged the shots and raised his hand. The Egg Pawns flailed and kicked as they were levitated upward by the Force and then crushed by it before being flung aside.

"Here we are. Let's get in, get that commander and get out." Fett said as he ran up and kicked the malfunctioning automatic door to the building down, gunning down three more new gen Egg Pawns with his EE-3 as he walked inside, followed closely by Darth Vader.

Now all that was left was getting to the higher levels, killing any enemies that dared to stand in their way, and capturing the central commander of the Egg Army there on Corulag.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Whadd'ya mean we can't get reinforcements?!" Coconuts shouted in confused anger and despair.

"I'm sorry, but that's what the Doctor said. He's putting together some plan by having us move the home fleet, but he won't tell us the details. He doesn't want any of the forces we have in the Mytaranor sector to be dispatched either. You can only try and holdout or make a full tactical retreat altogether now I'm afraid. Doctor Eggman might contact you soon if he wants you to know something specific, so keep an ear out, whatever you decide to do." Orbot explained to him.

The monkey-like robot took his pair of binoculars and looked out of the window in the Bunker 51 building again down at the plaza. The Sentinels that had been called down were gone. Well, one was there, but it was destroyed, he couldn't see the other one that he called, so one was a goner and the other was gone.

"Shoot!" He fumbled as he threw down the binoculars and turned to the blue Eggrobo accompanying him, "Y-you got any better ideas?!"

"Sir. We are losing forces rapidly. Our reinforcements are diminishing thanks to the sudden backup that the Imperials have called for. We have two viable options remaining."

"Well, spit it out!"

"We could call down another of our Major battleships in space for backups ourselves, strengthening our army on the ground, but weakening our fleet in space. Or we could call for the Minor cruisers in the air to teleport all remaining forces back to prevent more casualties and retreat. Retreat recommended."

"We can't though! If I don't win this battle that Robotnik sent me to command because everyone else had their hands tied up, he won't recognize me for my talent, and I'll never get a promotion!" Coconuts whined.

"Sir, you are effectively immortal as a machine, do you not have enough time in your life to get a promotion another time?"

"I've lost too many chances in the past, I'll lose more in the future, and while this isn't exactly capturing Sonic or his friends for Robotnik, this might just be the best chance I got at doing anything other than mopping the floor!" Coconuts complained, "I don't care what you do, make sure those robots win! Have one of the ships in the sky there bombard the plaza if you must!"

The Eggrobo adjusted it's bicorne as if it didn't know how to explain something before it spoke. "Sir, you do realize that bombardment of the plaza has a very high chance of causing this building we are in to collapse, correct? Not only that, but we would lose even more troops as a result."

"Hrgh! Then have some bombers drop a payload if you must! Just do anything that could lower the amount of enemy troops!" Coconuts said as he picked up his binoculars again.

Quickly, one of the new gen Egg Pawns ran into the room and tripped over some of the plastoid debris before standing and making it over to Coconuts. "Sir, two intruders have entered the building and are ascending to it's higher levels. They have killed all Egg Pawns and SWATbots that tried to stop them."

"Hnm?!" Coconuts looked over to the security monitors in the room and looked over the feeds of the cameras throughout the building until he at last saw on one of the feeds Darth Vader and Boba Fett moving past a group of destroyed Egg Pawns.

"You, commandant, run a database scan and try to find a match for those two, they don't look like the normal henchmen!"

The Eggrobo's eyes flickered with lines of code going through them as it made a ticking noise and hum, "Match made." It said as it lifted it's hands and projected images of Darth Vader and Boba Fett with it's built in holoprojectors.

"Individuals identified as Supreme Commander Vader and unit A0050, otherwise known under the alias 'Boba Fett'."

"And I take it that's a bad thing?"

"Affirmative. Supreme Commander Vader acts as one of the deadliest combatants in the Empire and one of it's greatest tacticians. Unit A0050 is notoriously known as the 'greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy'."

"Well well well, with a rank like that, this Vader guy must be very important, huh? And a bounty hunter considered the greatest in the galaxy must be equally as important, especially since the two are working together. Hm hm hm hm... Oh just imagine the promotion the Doctor would give me if I were bring them both to him in shackles!" Coconuts fantasized with a grin on his face, "Commandant, I think winning this battle may no longer be what I need for a promotion. Deploy the Shadowbots and tell them to capture those two! Oh, I'm going to have such high status after this is all through! Ooh ooh hah hah hah!"

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"I don't see why your troops have such a hard time fighting these things." Boba said as he and Vader crept through the hall they were in.

"You do not see things from a soldier's perspective because you are not one." Vader replied, irritated at the small talk.

"I'll take that as a complement that I'm better then." Boba said as he pressed buttons on the pad of a locked door blocking their path, "Just a moment, I'll get this one open quietly." He said. Vader waited.

The bounty hunter tried multiple combinations, none working. He attempted to hack it, putting in combinations that only he knew, ones that usually worked to open other doors trivially. But his combinations were useless and the door remained shut.

"You waste my time with these shenanigans." Vader said as he drew his lightsaber and prepared to slice the door down.

"Fine, go ahead. But know that cutting the door is the noisy way of-"

A black metallic hand suddenly burst out from the door and tore it out of the way as the hulking form of a Shadowbot came into view right before it charged through, breaking down the frame of the door and sending pieces of it flying. It's right arm smashed into Boba and slammed the bounty hunter against the wall as it's other hand shot forward and pushed the Sith lord to the floor and onto his back, losing a finger to the lightsaber however.

The Shadowbot raised it's other hand to fire a beam at Vader from it's palm, but was stopped as Boba Fett hopped to his feet despite taking a blow that would have easily killed most others and grabbed the arm of the Shadowbot, sending stun waves through it after activating his stun cuff. The hulking robot struggled to move and couldn't fire it's beam, but slowly raised it's right foot as Vader got to his feet.

It used all of it's might to stomp the floor despite being stunned, creating a crack in it and throwing Fett off of balance as he shot the beam at Vader, who deflected it with his lightsaber, sending it back into the torso of the Shadowbot, which blew a portion of it's armor off and forced the robot onto it's knees before Vader decapitated it with a single swipe.

"Behind you!" Fett pointed his finger down the hall, where two more Shadowbots appeared at. Without another thought, the Sith lord and Bounty Hunter rushed past the destroyed door and into what looked like a lounge. Ducking behind a counter in the room, Fett gestured Vader over, the Sith moving into the darkness.

The Shadowbots came into the room, scanning around with their sensors, both looking everywhere but the darkness and the counters to their left. Only when Darth Vader stepped out of the shadows did they turn and spot him. One was flung towards the windows in the room by the Force, though it narrowly escaped plummeting to it's death from the height they were at by managing to grab onto the edge of the flooring after it crashed through the window.

The second Shadowbot raised it's left arm to block the red blade of Vader's lightsaber when he chopped at it. While the blade cut through it's arm, it did not fully slice off the arm and the robot immediately retaliated by swinging it's fist at the Sith, who ducked under it and returned by throwing his own fist into the visor of the machine. But unlike every other time the apprentice of the Emperor had destroyed a droid with his punches alone, his fist did not even shift the head of the robot and only brought him great pain in his arm.

Boba Fett shooting the Shadowbot in the head with his EE-3 allowed Vader to shove his blade into the visor before the machine could land another potentially fatal blow on the half cyborg Force sensitive.

The other Shadowbot crawled back onto the floor as Vader pushed the body of the one he had just disabled into it with the Force. With it's two strong arms, the Shadowbot grabbed the body of it's comrade and hurled it back at the Sith lord who rolled out of the way as the body of the thrown Shadowbot traveled past him and right through the walls behind them.

This time, it shot the floor underneath Vader with it's hand beam, blowing it out from underneath the Sith's feet as it did the same with the counter Boba hid behind, forcing the bounty hunter out into the open. Rearing his hand back, Vader swung his lightsaber at the Shadowbot, but found himself in shock when it's hand grabbed the blade by it's handle in midair with reflexes similar to that of a Jedi master.

It lunged forward, attempting to impale Vader with his own blade, but was repelled away by a sphere of kinetite that he launched at it. Boba once again jumped forward and grabbed the Shadowbot by it's head, activating his cuff and stunning it as Vader, enhancing his fist with the Force, caved in a section of it's torso with his punch before prying open it's fingers and slicing the hand off upon getting his grip back onto his blade. Finally, Boba hopped down as Vader delivered the final strike, cutting through the torso and splitting the Shadowbot into two with an upwards stroke.

The two pieces of it's body fell down as Boba was breathing heavily. Vader shut off his saber as he grabbed his arm, which was still in pain.

"You say that I should be thanking the Grand Admiral for sending you here, and by extension, thanking you for, as you put it, saving me earlier. Now the tables have turned, and you have me to thank." Vader remarked.

"And.... what makes.... you think that?" Boba questioned.

"Had you went alone on this mission, you would have likely perished at the hands of these machines had it not been for me fighting by your side." The Sith lord said, as it was his turn to jeer.

".... I'll have you know I would have managed.... just fine." Fett said, picking up his EE-3 blaster carbine as he resumed walking towards the exit of the room.

"As you say, your Fettiness." Vader said in retrospect of when Boba referred to him as 'your sithiness'.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"How long are those stupid Shadowbots going to take?! Go send down someone to check on them!" Coconuts said, becoming annoyed at how how long it had been since the Shadowbots were dispatched.

At his words, three of the Egg Pawns in the security room with him walked out, shutting the door behind themselves.

"Coconuts." Doctor Eggman appeared without warning as a hologram on the projector of the Eggrobo commandant's hand.

"Ahh! Uh-Uh... Yes, Doctor Robotnik! What can I help you with?" Coconuts fumbled, startled by the mention of his name by his master.

"Forget the entire assault on Corulag. Pull out and retreat to Kashyyyk and regroup with the battlegroup cluster, I have a new move I plan to make soon and we're going to need a great number of ships for it." Eggman told him.

"R-retreat? Even when we're so close to victory?"

"Victory? You aren't nearing victory at all, you're losing, badly too. Everything the Eggrobo commandants witness is monitored constantly and I know everything they see. And I can see you are desperate to win, all for a promotion too. Typical of you really." Eggman said, unamused.

"..." Coconut's eyes glanced at the red eyes of the Eggrobo commandant, who stared back eerily, before looking back to the doctor, "I-if you say so, doc. I-l'll order the retreat immediately, sir."

"Good. And also, do not worry, I at least notice the efforts you put into this battle and it pleases me to see a loyal minion like yourself working towards my benefit so hard. Double your efforts in working for me and I will consider promoting you next time." Eggman said with a wink, "No guarantee you'll get a high rank though..." He whispered the last part.

"You don't have to tell me twice, sir!" Coconuts said as the projection turned off.

"Alright, you heard the boss, it's time to retreat! Alert the fleet in orbit to power up the hyperdrives and teleport our troops back!" Coconuts said, pointing his finger to space.

Just then, an Egg Pawn rushed into the room and slammed the door pad with it's index finger to close it right before leaning up against it. The Pawn looked terrified.

"What in the world has gotten into you?" Coconuts questioned it, but before it could even mutter a word, the red blade of Darth Vader's lightsaber pierced through the door and stuck out from between the Pawn's red eyes. The door was blasted open by a Force push from the Sith lord as he stepped into the room with Boba Fett flanking him. The bounty hunter raised his EE-3 and shot down the Eggrobo commandant without a second thought.

"AH!" Coconuts yelped as he chucked his binoculars at Vader in defense. Vader only grunted in annoyance as he was hit with the binoculars and strode up to Coconuts, whom he grabbed by the neck and lifted up.

"NGH! D-DON'T KILL ME! PLEASE! I HAVE TOO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!" Coconuts wailed as he tried to pry Vader's hand from around his neck.

"We don't plan on killing you, but I don't know if you'll survive any longer after they interrogate you." Boba Fett said as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and placed them on Coconuts wrists despite the robot's struggling, "No more monkey business for you, eh? You're coming with me. My client is paying a hefty sum for you." Boba told him.

"I-I don't know anything, I swear! I'm just a low ranking field commander! How could I know anything, right?" Coconuts said in some attempt to convince them he wasn't apart of the inner circle of the Eggman Empire.

"Lying will get you nowhere, droid. After the questioning, you will be sent to the furnace." Vader said darkly, letting go of his neck as Boba grabbed him by his cuffs and carried him along.

"...S-shoot..." Coconuts said as he was dragged off by Fett. Vader said nothing as the bounty hunter left with the robot. The Sith lord simply walked to the edge of the room, which had a large part of it's wall blasted out. He was standing directly in one of the rooms of the building where the large Imperial logo that was once on it used to be. He looked down at the plaza below, where the 501st and unassigned Imperials were mopping up the few remaining robots of the Egg Army that hadn't been finished off yet. The plaza was taken. The enemy was in full retreat, their spaceships in the sky were pulling back out to space and their fleet was preparing to make the jump to hyperspace to retreat.

The battle for Corulag was theirs.

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ISD Admonitor, near the DS-1 Orbital Station in the Alderaan system. Thrawn's quarters.

"So, you have returned." Thrawn said, staring at the projections around his chair.

"Yes, and with the central commander you requested." Boba said.

"Good, this is exceptional work you've pulled off, although..." Thrawn said as he turned to them with the projections disappearing, "I didn't anticipate that the central commander I wanted would look...like this..." Thrawn commented on the appearance of Coconuts.

"I'm right here and can hear you, ya' know..." Coconuts said, insulted.

"Ah, I meant no offense by it, I only meant to express my surprise is all." Thrawn said.

"You have your commander. Now, about the rest of my pay." Fett said.

"Yes, yes, I would not want to keep you waiting now, would I?" Thrawn said as he swiped his datapad with his finger, "The payment, as negotiated."

"Good." Boba Fett said, removing Coconuts' cuffs as he turned to leave.

"Perhaps we shall do business once more another time." Thrawn said.

"Perhaps." Boba replied before leaving.

"Take him to my Lambda shuttle, we must present him before the joint chiefs." Thrawn ordered the two Shadow Stormtroopers in the room who accompanied him everywhere. The black armored elites moved over and grabbed Coconuts up by his arms, though he did not struggle, there was no point in doing it any longer, he could only hope Eggman would come to rescue him from captivity later.

Now, the Grand Admiral would begin planning out an attack on Hypori soon. All that they needed to get now was the information Coconuts held, by downloading it.


	10. The Emperor's New Superweapons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: Star Wars is a property of the Walt Disney company. Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to Sega. I own neither.

"Although it pains me to admit this, the droid attempted to purge it's memory upon realizing that we were going to probe it's brain. We disabled it with an Ion pulse once we saw it begin deleting files, but we only managed to recover so much." An NCO said.

"And why did you not think to disable it before hand? Idiot. You and your team will receive a repercussion for this show of incompetence!" Tarkin harshly said to the NCO, not caring to hide his anger at his idiocy at all.

"This is very unfortunate, but we put a lot of effort into getting that commander, so tell us what was found." Thrawn says, hiding his irritation at the NCO having not thought to hit Coconuts with an Ion pulse before probing it's brain.

"From what we found, the official name of the state we are at war with is named the 'Eggman Empire'. They are headed by an individual known as 'Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik'."

The Imperials in the room gave each other looks of peculiarity. Tarkin held up his finger to halt the NCO.

"The what...empire?"

"...The... ern... Eggman Empire, Grand Moff." The NCO said once more.

"The... Egg-man... Empire?" Tarkin mouthed.

"Yes sir. The Eggman Empire." The NCO said again.

"... Grand Admiral. What is your assertion about the... creative name of our enemy?" Tarkin said, turning his head to the Chiss.

".......I've no comment other than that I've heard of even stranger names for states before." The Chiss replied.

"Could it be that the enemy leader is overweight?" Admiral Motti suggested with a humorous smile, looking at everyone else. Nobody seemed to be amused and the Admiral's smile faded as he sunk back into his seat.

"Very well. Continue." Tarkin gestured to the NCO.

"Ah, yes sir. From what we could gather, the enemy battlestation is dubbed the 'Death Egg'-" The NCO was in the middle of saying, but stopped as Admiral Motti failed to suppress a giggle.

"....I.... am sorry, it's just that the choice in naming and...-" Motti went on before shutting himself up as Tarkin's gaze snapped upon him before the Grand Moff once again gestured for the NCO to continue.

"...Uhn.... It is dubbed the 'Death Egg'..... and does possess a main armament, but we do not know what that armament is and can only assume it is a weapon used for destroying planets much like the concave dish..... They have a fleet of several thousand ships in total across the galaxy, billions of troops, and seemed to have came out at Hypori through what we can only describe as a wormhole when we looked through the memory. In theory of course." The NCO continued on.

"A wormhole? You would suggest they arrived at Hypori from a wormhole?" Tarkin questioned.

"It was in the memory sir, and we couldn't find anything that would suggest it was a fake, implanted memory to throw us off. From where they came from out of the wormhole, we have no way of knowing, but our assumption is that the enemy is possibly extragalactic, or even from an alternate dimension given that this is possibly... the only instance of a wormhole ever recorded in galactic history. Even stretching back to the days of the Old Republic's founding and before, there is no account of any such thing at all."

Tarkin said nothing, instead closing his hands together as he pondered this, it was a lot to take in, especially when he reflected on how this 'Death Egg' was larger than the Death Star. "This information should be sent directly to the Emperor himself, as fast as possible. NCO, bring this up with Colonel Yularen and tell him I want it sent to the Emperor immediately."

"As you wish sir. Do you want me to continue before I do?"

"That would be up to Thrawn." Tarkin said.

"Have a copy of the data made and sent to the Admonitor." Thrawn says. The NCO nods and leaves.

With that, the officers dismissed themselves. Tarkin stood and Thrawn followed as they walked from the conference room to the Overbridge of the Death Star a few feet away.

"Tell me, Grand Admiral, how many ships have gathered at Ryloth at of yet?"

"Currently, we have thirty eight Imperial one and two class Star Destroyers, twenty Victory-two class Star Destroyers, one Bellator class, one Praetor two class, three Allegiance classes and the Executor in orbit of Ryloth. Of course, the presence of our fleet has the Twi'leks in uproar. Despite our attempts at explaining to them Ryloth is simply the planet we choose as a staging point, they remain superstitious we are planning bombardment of the surface, and dissidence grows among the Twi'lek." Thrawn told him.

"In fact, the more rambunctious of their society have begun attempting to infiltrate our starships in orbit using civilian ships they attempt to disguise. We've had no problem dealing with these would-be terrorists, but their eagerness to continue doing this is beginning to annoy my fleet hands very much. The more docile ones are doing something quite interesting as well, sending comlink messages up to our channels with the promise that whoever opens up the channel will get to watch their females do a "show" firsthand. They actually broadcast large groups of themselves protesting with signs, insisting that they will 'be free' and demanding that we leave orbit. I've had to hand out... severe repercussions to anybody foolish enough to open the channels." Thrawn says. Tarkin seems quite amused hearing it, but hides it to continue appearing professional.

"I see. Do not worry about the antics of the Twi'lek, the Imperial army garrison shall keep them under watch for now. Only later will we remind them who rules this galaxy." Tarkin said, "Come with me, I have something for you."

Thrawn followed the governor into his office. He watched as the Eriaduan stepped over to his desk and pulled something out from it. A small object, silver, a vibro-dagger that had a light blue jewel as the pommel. Tarkin slid the dagger into a metal sheath before he walked over and handed it to the Chiss, who slowly took it and looked it over.

"This dagger was a minor heirloom of one of the Quintad's five families from around the time they first moved to Eriadu to convert it into an industrial powerhouse. It is one the best examples of the shellwork jewelry my homeworld became famous for." Tarkin explained, Thrawn was intrigued as he looked over the blade of the vibro-dagger and it's shell jewel.

"Interesting. Combining expertise craftsmanship with jewelry, that is. It is not hard to see why your planet became famous for these jewels." Thrawn said, fascinated with the dagger.

"Indeed. Funny though, how ironic it is that Corulag, the planet the Quintad originally hailed from was the sight of one of our deadliest battles yet just recently..." Tarkin said, looking to the side for a moment before back at Thrawn.

"The dagger is yours, Grand Admiral. I understand you have a fancy for art. Perhaps it will make a fine addition to your collection."

"You have my thanks, governor." Thrawn said.

Tarkin moved over then and grabbed two glasses from his desk and handed Thrawn one. "Corellian brandy. Let us toast to the work we have accomplished thus far, and place our faith in our armada to make our aspirations come true when the time to strike at Hypori comes."

"Indeed, lets." Thrawn said as he pinged his glass against Tarkin's before downing the brandy in one go. Setting the glass down on the desk, he slid the dagger into his pocket before glancing at the spatial-clock in the room, "I must be going now, I have planning to attend. I wish you good fortune for the upcoming surprise attack, Grand Moff."

"Yes, yes, of course. Safe travels Grand Admiral." Tarkin said as the Chiss exited his office. Sitting down at his desk, the Grand Moff reached for a container of medication from one of the drawers of his desk and took one pill out of the container. Taking the pill with his brandy, he noticed his holoprojector's light blinking. Pressing the answer button, he was surprised when the image of the Emperor sitting on his throne appeared on it.

"Your majesty, greetings. To what do I owe the honor?"

"I have need of your skill, governor. I implore you to join me at my incognitive world of Byss. You will know the rest when you arrive." The Galactic Emperor, Sheev Palpatine said to him. Though, in the tone he spoke, he sounded as if he wanted to warn Tarkin, as if foreshadowing future events, but the Eriaduan did not seem to notice, he simply looked confused.

"You would have me meet you at Byss? Even when the time we plan to strike at Hypori is so close?"

"You will come to understand why I have recalled you back in due time, Wilhuff. For now, you may safely leave the Death Star under the jurisdiction of Grand Admiral Thrawn until later."

"Is this for diplomatic or military reasons?"

"It is too important to share over holocommunication, governor. I will tell you in person, away from prying ears."

"I see... Very well, as you request, sire. I will embark as soon as I can. Should I inform the Grand Admiral?"

"Only before the exact moment you depart." Palpatine says, the hologram vanishing right after.

Without another word, Tarkin nodded and stood, walking out to the overbridge to inform the other Joint Chiefs of the sudden new request. The attack on Hypori was bound soon, but the Grand Moff would not be present for it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
Much later, at Byss, the dark center of the universe...  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As his Lambda shuttle flew down to the surface of the secretive planet of Byss, a planet he had known hardly anything of, Tarkin couldn't help but wonder what other things the Emperor kept secret, but digressed, wanting to focus at what was at hand.

"Present your security codes."

The second pilot pressed buttons on his control panel in response.

"Codes valid, proceed to landing platform seven."

The Lambda flew towards the towering structure ahead; The Imperial Citadel. The massive, multi-kilometre high structure was eerie in appearance. The dark tower that had a crimson tint looked frightening, and even Tarkin got a chill looking at it. He was intrigued by the number of massive Hunter-Killer droids patrolling around the body of the massive tower. They were like massive Probe Droids that looked like they could pick up an AT-AT with their claws alone.

As the Lambda shuttle landed, he stood and walked down the ramp, flanked by two Stormtroopers as he entered the hangar. It was dim inside, and up ahead, he spotted two of the Emperor's Royal Guardsmen up ahead. But these were no regular guardsmen, these were some of the rare and elite of the elite Imperial Sovereign Protectors, members of the cadre of the Royal Guard that only the most skilled and best of the best entered. They were some of the greatest fighters in the entire galaxy.

In between the Protectors stood a very tall figure donning brownish garments and bronze armor, in his hand was a vibro poleaxe. The figure had two red eyes that made even the Stormtroopers guiding Tarkin shiver slightly. It was an Imperial Sentinel, fearsome warriors assigned to serve the Dark Jedi under the Emperor. The giant slowly stepped forward, tapping the end of his poleaxe against the floor with each step. The Sovereign protectors and Stormtroopers dispersed.

"Governor Wilhuff Tarkin.... right this way."

Saying nothing, Tarkin quietly followed the giant down the luxurious halls and corridors of the Citadel. It was much like taking a stroll through the Imperial Palace back on Coruscant, yet, it seemed to be even more high classed than that, and it was unthinkable that there could be something even more luxurious than the Palace.

"Through here..." The Imperial Sentinel said. Tarkin nodded and walked through the doorway ahead of him, entering a room where he saw the dark figure of the Emperor sitting on a throne at a table along with a man Tarkin recognized as Umak Leth, one of the chief weapons engineers who worked on the Death Star.

"Ahh... .Governor Tarkin, I am pleased you could make it here to Byss at a favorable time. You never fail to be punctual, Grand Moff. Come, sit." The Emperor said upon seeing Tarkin.

The governor took a seat as the table as the obese engineer, Umak Leth pulled out a holographic projector from his jacket.

"This appears to be quite the high profile meeting. What is the occasion, my liege?" Tarkin questioned.

"I would like to introduce you to our newest projects, projects that will be used specifically for consolidating our power and supremacy as well as acting as symbols of the Empire's power." Sidious says as he looked to Umak Leth, who turned on the hologram to show the schematics for an object, one that looked tubular in shape.

"Grand Moff Tarkin, I present to you one of my finest ideas since the days of working on the DS-1. I call it..... the Galaxy Gun." Umak states.

"While the Death Star is a truly impressive accomplishment and one of our greatest tools, it can only keep but so many systems in line, and it would be incapable of handling a situation where multiple systems or planets rebel at the same time. For this reason, our dear friend Umak here has presented before me his ideas for a series of new series of weapons that will work in conjunction with the Death Star, keeping the galaxy in our iron grasp." Sidious says.

"Indeed. With this new superweapon, we wouldn't have to worry about some far away planet like Muunilinst rebelling against us if the Death Star was as far away as Bespin. The Galaxy Gun can effectively wipe out anything from across the entire galaxy with it's hyperspace capable projectiles!" Umak says in some self-congratulatory way.

"This weapon can destroy a city... a landmass... or even an entire planet anywhere! Truly, it is one of our greatest concepts, no?"

"It is certainly a congenial idea." Tarkin said, finding himself regarding the ideas for this 'Galaxy Gun' with favor, "Though, I suspect you didn't call me here to show me one thing. There is more, I presume?"

"Indeed. This is just one of many things the Emperor had me think up for him. Others would include these marvels..." Umak said as the hologram showed the schematic for another superweapon, one that appeared like some sort of spaceship with four leg-like appendages on it's sides.

"Now this amazement of a superweapon I call the World Devastator. Great fires burn in it's belly, and everything it eats is transformed into new instruments of doom. These machines will tear apart the surface of a planet and consume everything it rips up to then use it for constructing anything. Anything ranging from droids, fighters, vehicles and starships..."

"A superweapon that can create things from what it destroys.... Most interesting, but you said 'these', so am I to assume that means there would be multiple?" Tarkin asks.

"Indeed, Grand Moff. These machines vary in size, but are, to our calculations, more efficient than the Death Star. Their deadliness is arguable, as some of our project managers argue it to be deadlier than the Death Star while others argue it not to be. Regardless of whether it is or not, it is still very deadly and incredibly efficient." Leth went on.

Tarkin batted his eye at the unhealthy scientist, in disagreement about these 'World Devastators' being deadlier than his battlestation. But he kept his objection to the argued claim hidden as he nodded and turned back to the Emperor who seemed to notice his glare, and was amused by the disapproval in it.

"My liege, if what I can predict is true, you had me come here because you want me to act as the overseer of these new superweapon projects?" Tarkin said, wanting to get to the point.

"Your ability to spot the purpose of my orders so quickly has always pleased me, Wilhuff. Yes, I wish for you to oversee the construction of these superweapons alongside overseeing the construction of one other thing..." The Emperor said as the hologram in the middle of the table flickered on to show the image of two massive starships.

"This is the design for new types of star dreadnoughts planned to serve in our navy in the future. We call them the Eclipse and Sovereign-class Super Star Destroyers." Palpatine said as the image flickered to show one of the dreadnoughts under construction.

"This is the first of them, the Eclipse, my own personal flagship. It is being moved from Kuat to here at Byss, where it's construction will be much more concealed and secretive. I expect you to ensure the construction of these superweapons and ships are finished, regardless of whether or not the war we are currently in is over. Can I count on you for this task, Grand Moff? Or will you disappoint me?"

"My absolute loyalty is to you, your highness. I would never think of disobeying your commands. But I am concerned about the Death Star. Grand Admiral Thrawn is without a shadow of a doubt a military genius, but he seems to despise the very concept of superweapons in favor of naval supremacy and might, my lord. Can we really trust him with watching over and using the achievement of my doctrine which this Empire rules by?" Tarkin voiced his worry.

"It should be of no concern. I have instructed Thrawn to only use the Death Star for purposes involving the annihilation of our enemies. He is one of the officers in this Empire that we can trust to the very end, so worry not." Sheev said to reassure the governor, who nodded.

"Now, Umak, escort governor Tarkin to his new workplace."

"Right away sir. Governor, please follow me." Umak Leth says, getting up and walking out of the room, Tarkin following.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Is the fleet ready for the assault?"

"Yes Grand Admiral."

"Do the captains and lieutenants know their objectives?"

"Yes Grand Admiral."

"Good. Then give the order. We go in, eliminate any obstacle obstructing our path to the enemy battlestation and secure the field for the Death Star to enter the fray and end the battle with it's superlaser. Full scale bombardment of the planet will follow." Thrawn said as he stepped up to the viewport of the Admoniter's bridge.

"Let the assault commence." Thrawn said as his fleet entered Hyperspace, making off to the Hypori system to begin the operation they planned on crippling the Eggman Empire with.

As the last of the warships darted off into the distance, vanishing into Hyperspace, the eyes of an Eggrobo watching them from afar blinked as it lowered it's binoculars.

"Enemy fleet is now en route to Hypori system, Commander Snively."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Affirmative, I read you." Snively said.

"Is the fleet ready at a minute's notice?" Doctor Eggman said as he stood next to his Eggmobile in the bridge of the Final Fortress MKII.

"Yes Doctor. You only need to give the order and we will boot into the strategic positions immediately." Snively answered him.

"Excellent. Now all we have to do is give the enemy the illusion of victory...and then pull the rug right out from under their feet! Oh ho ho ho ho! Just wait to see the look on their faces..." The doctor laughed as he stepped into the Eggmobile.

"Very good, sir. And I have delivered your instructions to Orbot and Cubot in the Death Egg as well." Snively said.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a monkey to reclaim." Eggman said as the Eggmobile lowered itself down the manhole in the bridge. The place where Eggman's primary method of transportation was once at was replaced by a metal swivel chair then, which Snively gladly sat in as he took helm of the vessel.


	11. Battle of Hypori

"Did you hear about the new Naboo bistro opening up in area nineteen of section 4?" An Imperial security monitor said to another.

"Yeah, been thinking about trying it. Not too sure though, I heard they have Gungan slaves as the chefs there, I wouldn't want my food prepared by the hands of a xeno like them" The other said.

"That's just a rumor, they actually have Naboo human slaves as chefs there. Don't knock something until you've tried it." The first monitor said as they were both interrupted by a group of seven Stormtroopers entering the room. The two officers looked up at the silent troopers who entered, curious as to why they were there.

"Can we help you?" The second monitor said.

The Stormtroopers simply stood there, unmoving. The monitors just looked back, confused until one finally spoke up.

"My name is: Gary the Stormtrooper. I am the leader of this squad." One said in an almost monotonous way.

"...Okay. And what is it you are here for, "Gary"?"

"We are here to escort a prisoner of war named... 'Coconuts' ...to another cell block elsewhere." 'Gary' said.

"I haven't gotten word of any relocations. That prisoner is off limits. Only the higher ranks can go up there-" The first monitor was cut off as a blaster bolt hit his forehead, killing him. In shock, the second monitor pulled his pistol and reached for the alarm, but was stopped as he was too shot by the Stormtroopers.

Then, the Stormtroopers started blinking and faded, vanishing completely, and in their place, modified Egg Gunners.

Quickly, the Egg Gunners secured the room as one hopped over the console and kicked aside the bodies of the dead monitors. It inserted it's right arm, which had been modified to instead feature a hacking tool rather than a missile launcher, into the console.

"Cell B zero eight." The hacker variant of Egg Gunner said.

Without a second to lose, the Egg Gunners reactivated their disguise cloak and appeared as Stormtroopers once more. Two assumed the form of the monitors they had dispatched before moving the bodies and placing them inside a container in the room, hiding them.

Marching down the hall, the disguised Egg Gunners passed by many cells as they made their way through block A and into B, where they huddled up closely to the door of the eighth cell.

The hacker variant once again returned to it's normal form as it inserted it's tool arm into the control pad of the door. With a few clicks and the sound of turning mechanisms, the door opened to reveal the disgruntled Coconuts sitting inside on a metal bench, his hands confined by stun cuffs. He looked to be quite frantic, as he reacted to the appearance of the Egg Gunners with fear.

"W-WHO ARE YOU?!" Coconuts almost yelled. When he had attempted to purge his memory before the Imperials could download it, he had deleted his registry of the specifics of Eggman's robotic army and Egg Fleet. He no longer properly recognized the robots, as the only information left behind on the Egg Army was it's branch name and the numbers it sported.

Thinking quickly, and wanting to ensure as little noise is made as possible, the hacking Egg Gunner, acting as leader of the squad, shot forward and ensnared Coconut's neck in it's tool arm, using electromagnetic pulse waves it sent through to disable the frantic Egg Commander suffering from self-inflicted memory loss.

Lifting Coconuts up, the lead Egg Gunner placed him into a harness on it's back to carry him as it exited the cell.

Luck was not in favor of the robots however, as passerby Stormtroopers patrolling down the halls of the cell blocks drew near and took notice of the odd display.

"Go sound the alarm!" One said as another rushed off. Four of the Stormtroopers marched down the hall with their blasters raised. The rest of the Egg Gunners dropped their disguises then and proceeded to fire at the approaching Imperials, dispatching them as they began to move down the hall in a circular formation around the lead Egg Gunner to safeguard Coconuts as they extracted him.

The alarm blazed. More Imperials rushed to apprehend the infiltrators as the voice of an officer was heard over the speakers announcing that their most important prisoner was being taken away.

"Objective: Reach designated teleportation safespot." The lead Egg Gunner said, the others replied with 'affirmatives' and 'rogers'.

They quickly sprinted down a corridor, making their way to a hangar, the only places where the teleportation could properly work at. The shields of the Death Star, as powerful as they were, interfered with the range of the teleportation method Dr. Robotnik used. Teleportation could still be accomplished, but only a short distance into the Death Star's interior, or as far as a hangar at most.

Stormtroopers and Navy Troopers came in by the dozens attempting the halt the progression of the infiltrators. As they zoomed by, the Egg Gunners cut down the Imperials with their armaments ranging from upgraded blaster arm-stalks to even low yield stealth missiles and electron grenades that could kill their enemies with electric charges that surged through their bodies like invisible waves.

However, as efficient at being a dangerous murder-bot as the Egg Gunners were, the numbers of the Stormtroopers pursuing them came to bare down on them. As they ran through another corridor, the blaster bolts of several Stormtroopers that had entered the chamber they were in came at them in a flurry as they stopped at a fork path, hitting one Egg Gunner and melting it's armor and internal systems while leaving behind burning puncture holes, destroying it.

The Egg Gunners released a smoke screen from their bodies then, clouding the room and preventing any other Stormtroopers or Navy Troopers that entered from having proper sight, which only made them easy prey for the blaster-arm stalks and blade-like grappling claw attachments of some of the Gunners.

The lead Egg Gunner inserted it's hacking tool into the panel of a nearby map system that had been shut off to prevent them from using it. The lights of the system flickered to life as the Gunner hacked it to find it's way.

"Right corridor, left turbolift, right passageway." The lead Egg Gunner said, giving them directions which they followed quickly. Going down the right path in the room, they came out to a hall with turbolifts. Halted as they looked over the direction signs above the doors to the turbolifts, they took a moment to analyze the Galactic Basic in order to find which led to a hangar.

As the lead Egg Gunner ran through it's database to translate the Basic, the others of it's group took defensive positions. One of the Egg Gunners, which had it's right arm fitted with a mine launcher, placed down mines at the entrances to the room. The mines were almost flat and blended in with the coloring of the durasteel floor.

The mines activated as more of the expendable boys in white of the Empire came in, dying to the electron charges the mines sent through their bodies. But as the mines were used, more of the soldiers piled in as the lead Egg Gunner managed to decipher the Galactic Basic and find the correct turbolift.

As the Egg Gunners entered the turbolift, the blaster bolts the Stormtroopers fired at them had struck and killed another two of their team. Now they were four, having lost another two of their team, though, this helped with space in the turbolift. As it descended down some levels, the remaining three Egg Gunners formed a protective circle around the lead Gunner carrying Coconuts. When the turbolift stopped, they were now in the equatorial trench of the Death Star, so very close to the hangars they were traveling to.

As the doors opened to reveal the congregation of Imperial troopers awaiting them, they activated their boost packs and flew directly into the crowd, throwing and trampling the Imperials aside as they accelerated down the corridor and stopped just before reaching the end to turn down a passageway to their right leading to a hangar.

Coming out into the hangar at last, they were greeted by dozens more of the Imperials, who all fixed their blasters onto the robots. Behind them, Navy Troopers appeared and trapped them in the hangar. The voice of an officer was heard through the speakers.

"Enemies of the Empire, we have you cornered, there is no escape. Surrender now or be destroyed."

The Egg Gunners did not react, being only programmed to follow their directives. They simply waited there for a moment until orange energies surrounded the lead Egg Gunner carrying Coconuts. The lead Egg Gunner became transparent before disappearing along with the energies and Coconuts then.

The remaining three Egg Gunners began to emit a ticking sound as their lights blinked red. They dived into the crowd of Imperials then, and a violent explosion followed that sent the troopers and their limbs flying all around the now ruined hangar.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"...HUH!? W-WHERE AM I?!" Coconuts exclaimed as he woke up from being disabled by the electromagnetic pulse that he was hit with. He looked down to see he was sitting in a chair with a cable plugged into his hand.

"Ahh, Coconuts, good to see you are fine after all. It's a good thing I keep backups of everyone's memory in case they get amnesia. All I have to do is plug them up and paste another copy of their recorded memory back and voilá." Doctor Eggman, who stood beside Coconuts said.

"Oh, oh, good...phew..." Coconuts said as he stood up and unplugged the cable.

"It was a good thing you were captured. It allowed me to get some eyes into the enemy battlestation and learn some things. See, the Egg Gunners didn't only rescue you, they planted some robots which will be paramount to assisting in the battle we are about to enter. With them, I will be able to sabotage this battlestation and render it vulnerable to be captured when it arrives in Hypori. Better to add more to our arsenal, hm?" Eggman said as he turned to the Eggrobo Commander behind him.

"Take us back to Hypori, it's time we set our plan in motion." Eggman said. "Yes sir." The robot said.

"Say, Doctor, about that promotion-"

"Later. We'll discuss that after we deal our enemies a fatal blow." Eggman said as he walked away. Coconuts simply grunted as he looked out of a viewing glass at their stealth ship making a jump to Hyperspace.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Thrawn looked onward from the bridge of the Admonitor, observing as his fleet dropped out of Hyperspace and arrived in the Hypori system from Ryloth. Directly ahead was the plethora of asteroid lanes and space bases the Eggman Empire had set up. The gargantuan sized Death Egg was in the distance as well, orbiting the planet. The dozens upon dozens of Egg Fleet ships there ceased their patrolling subroutines and instead steered their ships to move to engage the newly arrived Imperial fleet.

"Sir, our entire fleet is now out of Hyperspace and ready for your orders." Voss Parck, Thrawn's first officer said to the Chiss.

"Destroy all enemy ships and weapon platforms, then have our ships bombard the stations." Thrawn ordered.

The Star Destroyers and Victory cruisers moved in, letting out their complements of fighters as they flew forward. The Imperial leviathans behind followed closely. The mighty Praetor battlecruiser flew to engage the stations with the Allegiance classes while the Bellator dreadnought 'Dominion' and the Executor moved in to bare down on the Egg Fleet ships with their overwhelming firepower.

Thrawn turned then as an Imperial ensign approached him and tapped his shoulder.

"Yes, ensign? Is there a reason you address me in such an informal way?"

"S...sir, the...the enemy prisoner on the Death Star has escaped. We just...gotten word that enemy infiltrators have retrieved him. We killed most, but-"

"It is of no concern, the prisoner was useful for only one thing. Dismissed." Thrawn said. The ensign simply nodded and left timidly as the Grand Admiral turned to Voss Parck.

"Sir, shall I contact the Overbridge and ask Colonel Yularen to conduct a security sweep for any possible spies or other intruders that could still be in the Death Star?"

"Immediately. We cannot risk anything happening to the Death Star, less we incur the Emperor's wrath, personally." Thrawn said. The first officer nodded and went to the security station as Thrawn looked over the battlefield.

It was then he noticed another ship, quite a fast one at that, enter the system from Hyperspace. A small red and yellow vessel that raced past the Imperials and through the distance between the Egg Fleet ships and Imperial fleet, which was growing shorter with every moment that passed. Though the ship was visible to the eye, it did not appear on radar or sensors. That was when he witnessed it become less and less visible until it had not been seen any more.

"Ah, so that's how..." Thrawn said to himself, analyzing the implications to clearly see that it was some form of invisibility technology. As he watched it disappear and possibly dock at the Death Egg, he started to ponder what else this enemy that could stand against the Empire possessed. Despite being much, much tinier in comparison and possessing much less personnel and ships, they were dominating nearby worlds left and right. He had remembered the reports of teleportation the enemy utilized on Corulag, and the reports of super-strength and speed most of the enemy robots had. He just couldn't help but wonder what else the enemy had, and whether or not it could be used against the Far Outsiders...

Now, he was determined to attain victory and plunder the enemy stores. If they had displayed things much more advanced than what the Empire had in only the opening days of this war they are waging, then surely they are keeping even more things yet to be unveiled hidden for the time being. And whatever it was, Thrawn wanted to know, and he wanted to claim it for the Empire himself.

This battle would soon be a turning point as the Eggman Empire had a plan, yet the Galactic Empire had the Death Star en route.

"Move into attack vector."

"Sir, they're returning heavy fire."

"Enemy destroyed."

"The enemy battlestation appears to have a separate orbital station generating a shield over it."

"They're deploying fighters"

"Our engines are lost!"

"Firing concussion missile payload..."

"Executor's broadsides are taking damage..."

"Enemy ship destroyed."

"Target down."

"Our bridge is being targeted by enemy bomber-..."

Thrawn looked over the battle unfolding before him nonchalantly. So far, three Victory Star Destroyers had been lost and the Egg Fleet had lost one Major class battleship and two Minor class cruisers.

The enemy were distracted with trying to destroy the ships attacking their stations. They were too distracted that they let themselves fall as easy targets to the Bellator dreadnought 'Dominion' and the Executor, sustaining heavy damage from the superior range of the Imperial dreadnoughts. Their single Praetor MKII battlecruiser and Allegiance classes moved inwards to destroy the stations and asteroids lanes farther off, as they were feeding power to the shield generator station protecting the enemy battlestation, which was also somehow protecting itself with a shield as well simultaneously.

One by one, the heavy turbolasers and Ion cannons of the battlecruiser blew the lanes to kingdom come as the facilities built into them and the defense platforms were disabled by the shots of Ion.

The Imperial class Star Destroyers exchanged fire with the Major class battleships that had moved to attack rather than go on the defensive. The octuple barbette turbolaser cannons of both equivalents roared as their barrels spewed out green and red bolts at each other, which crossed paths with some colliding and some more hitting their target.

The engines of the TIE starfighters screamed ever loudly, whilst the engines of the Egg Fighters seemed to simply give off an intense hum of velocity as they accelerated ever faster. For this battle, the Empire had not lazily deployed only the average, common TIE Fighters that could be seen nearly everywhere else there was a battle in space at. No, alongside the average TIE Fighters were their more advanced cousins, the TIE Interceptors and TIE Defenders that were present and in good numbers. The Egg Fighters, while enough to match the efficiency of an Interceptor or better, were nearly no match for the Defenders they attempted to engage, and as a result, wounded up destroyed. Yet, the Egg Fighters were as numerous as the total number of TIEs, and were scoring kills even despite the advantage the Interceptors and Defenders granted them.

The starships of both sides become cluttered then. The various Victory and Imperial Star Destroyers were clashing with the Major and Minor class ships, both figuratively and literally. One Major battleship that had suffered too much damage to continue operating began to fall, descending down downwards to the planet of Hypori below, guided by it's gravitational pull. It fell towards the Executor however and crashed into the top of it's hull at high speeds, but the monstrously sized Imperial star dreadnought resisted the collision, it's shields blocking the hulk of the crashing ship and protecting it as the debris and wreckage of the destroyed vessel slid off harmlessly to the edges and then continued descending towards the planet to begin orbiting it.

Thrawn then carefully observed the asteroid lanes that remained. He took notice of how they appeared to be used for cargo purposes, having fast railcart transports send cargo along the lanes from one asteroid to another. That was when he noticed that one of the lanes, which ran from a large asteroid up to the midsection of the station generating a shield over the Death Egg, seemed to have electricity sparkling on it. That was the lane providing power for the station.

"Target there, have the Dominion destroy that lane and the asteroids connected to it." The Chiss said as he pointed his index and middle finger to them.

All of the dorsel mounted weapons of the Bellator rotated and took aim before firing at the electricity sparkling lane and it's asteroids in one burst. The heavy turbolaser fire completely destroyed the asteroids and lanes upon hitting them, and the shield around the enemy battlestation went down. The shield generator station was then promptly destroyed as well by the Executor and Praetor II focusing firepower onto it for a brief moment.

"The enemy battlestation is now vulnerable, sir. Your orders?"

"Call in Admiral Motti's reserves, tell them to attack the station's... nose..." Thrawn said as he looked at the facial features of the Death Egg.

"Sir," Said one of the crewmen then, "the enemy are sending reinforcements out through the equatorial trench hangars of their battlestation."

Thrawn looked down and surely they were. More Major class battleships and Minor cruisers were flying out of the large hangars and docks of the Death Egg to attack the Imperials. "Have our fleet engage theirs. Alert Admiral Piett and tell him I want the Executor to begin bombarding the... eyes of the battlestation while the Dominion assists our other ships."

Thrawn then looked over to see Admiral Motti's reserve squadron had arrived. Present were thirteen Imperial-I class and six Imperial-II class Star Destroyers, ten Acclamator II assault ships, four Gladiator class Star Destroyers, one Allegiance class Star Destroyer, several Arquitens light cruisers, and one Secutor carrier. The newly arrived ships immediately began firing at the Death Egg, aiming for the facial features on it.

"Sir, our bombardment is doing nothing to the hull of the enemy battlestation, it's simply resisting everything we throw at it." Voss Parck alerted Thrawn.

"No worries. The bombardment is simply to test how powerful the hull is. The real tool we shall use to break their armor should arrive soon now." Thrawn said.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Man, Orbot, they're tearing the distractions a new one out there!" Cubot said, overlooking the battle from the control room of the Death Egg.

"I really hope they don't somehow find a way to damage the Death Egg with their weapons." Orbot said, a bit concerned.

"It is no problem, so fret not. Our hull should be completely safe from their bombardment thanks to it's smart shielding." Snively bragged while he brushed his chest with his fist. Orbot's eye lenses rotating to express curiousness.

"Unlike the shielding of all our other devices, the force field of the Death Egg directly covers every inch of it's surface and remains flat against it, thus the meaning behind 'smart', as the shielding of any other thing will usually have a boundary off of the surface of what it's over, unlike the Death Egg. And even if they breached the shielding somehow, which they can't, the Death Egg would still be able to endure days upon days of them bombarding it before they manage to breach our vacuum sealed plasma-steel hull. And, I might add, the shield's unique properties and design gives off the illusion that anything hitting it is hitting the hull, so those foolish Imperials probably believe they're firing at the hull. Woh hoh hoh hoh!" Snively boasted.

"It does sound innovative." Orbot said.

"Wait a second. If the Death Egg itself has had a force-field this entire time, why'd we need to set up that shield generator station outside then?" Cubot questioned as he scratched his head.

"Because, it was a decoy to ensure the Imperials thought they had taken down the Death Egg's shields when they destroyed it, just so they wouldn't realize that shield was false. It was all apart of the Doctor's plan." Snively says.

"And it worked out perfectly to trick them too!" A new voice came. Everyone turned in attention to face Doctor Eggman as he entered the control room. "Now who is ready to see the next phase of our battle plan set into motion?"

"Ah, welcome back sir. The enemy have destroyed the distractions-or as I call them, necessary losses-like you wanted. The Death Egg is in position and the Final Egg Blaster is set to level ten." Snively said as Eggman walked up to the front viewport and observed the large Imperial fleet firing away at his battlestation while some other ships engaged the remaining necessary losses.

"Good," Eggman said as he stroked his mustache, "Now we just wait for their own battlestation to appear and then fire on it's lower section on my mark."

"Very good sir. Shall I contact our battlegroup in Mytaranor and alert them Operation Overturn begins in three hours?" Snively asks.

"Yes, and tell them that when they are go, that they can go all out on the Core Worlds too! Aah hah hah hah hah hah!" Eggman laughed.

"Sir, new object detected dropping out of Hyperspace." Orbot said.

"Hmm?" Eggman looked to the distance. There, far, far away in the distance was the colossal spherical superweapon of the Empire. The Death Star was there at last, having stopped out at the edge of the space just far away enough that the Death Egg was in range of it's superlaser. The Death Star faced the Death Egg despite the latter being larger. It's Ion sublight engines ensured it remained motionless as it positioned itself, lining up it's concave dish composite superlaser to fire it's beam directly into the face of the Death Egg.

"Kind of...disappointing now that I think about it, but nevermind that. Snively, tell the rest of our home fleet to make the jump to hyperspace here now. Orbot, activate the Final Egg Blaster and prepare it to fire at the lower section of the battlestation." Eggman ordered. Snively immediately got onto his own console as Orbot pressed away at the buttons on his.

On the face of the Death Egg, the front panel of it's nose opened them, and out from it extended the barrel of a canon that was painted dark purple. The Death Egg shifted as it lined up the cannon. Eggman stared intently as he watched the hologram on the viewscreen move to position a circle-like cursor into the middle mark of a target.

Soon, he would have both his own battlestation, and the Imperial battlestation under his control.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog nor do I own Star Wars. Both are respective property of their owning companies of Sega and Disney.
> 
> Please, do feel free to give your criticism on this. And if you happen to find any incorrect grammar, please do tell me so I can fix it. And as always, stay fabulous, chéri~
> 
> I will try my best to update this regularly, if any of you find it interesting, that is.


End file.
